Pokespecial Knights
by Fluttersong
Summary: Pokespe AU. In a world where Pokemon Knights rule the regions, fourteen young teenagers have been chosen to become one of them. But after being sent to an academy to become a knight, things become difficult. They have no clue what they're getting into...Ships inside! (Rated T because I'm paranoid.)
1. Chapter 1 - A Letter and Trial

**Hello, Fluttersong here with a new story. This's my first one in the Pokemon category, so I'm unsure if this's okay or not, but oh well. My new story is about the Pokespecial characters, since their so awesome (although I should probably be catching up on the D/P/P arc...ah, I just can't wait to get to the Canalave City chapter).**

**Anyways, this's AU since, well, their in a world where kingdoms exist and such...it's kind of obvious, XD. Oh, and the shippings will be Special, Mangaquest, Oldrival, Frantic, Commoner, slight Haughty, and Agency.**

**Enough of that, let's get going!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Pokemon Special else I'd make all the shippings canon. **

**Chapter One-A Letter and Trial**

Yellow sat on the rooftop of her home, the electric-type mouse known as Pikachu in her arms. The creature snuggled closer to her chest, visibly shaking from the cold, icy wind. Tail shaking, the female Pikachu whimpered.

The blonde pony-tailed girl patted the creature, soothing it with careful strokes of her hand. "Do you want to go inside, Chuchu?"

"Chuu," the female Pokemon muttered in agreement.

Yellow smiled at that, carefully getting to her feet and climbing down the roof on a sturdy brown ladder. Chuchu whimpered, but the girl just tugged her closer, ignoring the panicked pleas and instead whispering words of comfort.

Before she got off the ladder, Yellow cast a look at the sky. Stars hung in the night, as well as the full moon, which cast a beautiful silver glow on her. _The moon sure is beautiful,_ Yellow thought to herself before continuing down the ladder.

When her feet touched the ground, the sound of footsteps greeted her. Glancing up, she saw it was only her uncle. In one of his hands was a letter. Chuchu looked at it before scrambling onto her trainer's shoulder.

"Stayin' up again?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I like the night sky."

Her uncle looked at her without a trace of surprise. "Well, I suppose that's why you always go to bed at eleven," when Yellow quickly looked away, her uncle chuckled. He held out the letter to her. "For you."

Yellow studied it curiously before carefully accepting the letter. Her brown eyes noticed the name of Amarillo Del Bosque Verde scribbled on the front. She frowned. Who would send her a letter? It wasn't like she had any friends she knew or anyone else that would give her a letter. Besides, no one knew her true name.

"Who wrote this?"

Her uncle narrowed his eyes. "Some random man, asked for me to give ya' this letter." He checked the watch on his wrist and his eyes widened. "Gotta go, I have to go meet some one." He walked away.

The blonde frowned again, brown eyes scanning the letter one more time before she reluctantly opened it. Upon emptying the contents, she began reading the paper tucked inside.

_Greetings Amarillo,_

_You have been chosen to attend as a fellow canidate for being a knight in the Kingdom of Kanto. As you already know, the Kanto region is led by the sacred Pokemon knights made up of trainers with special abilities. You qualify as one of these many trainers, and that is why we want to ask you to join us._

_If you accept our offer, please wear the Starmie brooch we have provided you tomorrow. Go into the nearest town and wait. You will be provided a trial that will remain secret for now to test your abilities to see if you are ready to become a knight. If you refuse however...let's just say you'll be forgetting this very soon._

_We look forward to seeing your results._

_-The Knights of Kanto_

Yellow was taken aback by what she had just read. The Knights of Kanto wanted _her_, of all people? From what she knew about the secretive kingdom, they only chose the best of candidates to join in their ranks and perform noble deeds. Her jaw dropped in shock.

Chuchu twitched her ears and looked into the darkness of the night, black eyes gleaming. Yellow sensed the Pikachu tense and wondered what would cause the Pokemon to freeze.

"Chuchu?"

_Yeah?_ the creature glanced at her. Yellow wasn't surprised to hear the Pokemon speak, seeing as she had had the ability for a long time.

"What are you looking at?"

The Pokemon looked at her feet, black eyes closing. Electricity leaked from her cheek. _Nothing._

"Are you sure?"

_Y...Yep, nothing to see out there._ The Pikachu hopped off her shoulder, tail in the air. She pushed the door and beckoned for Yellow to enter. Sighing, Yellow followed her Pokemon with the envelope in one hand, the letter in another.

Moving past the kitchen and living room, they entered a slightly smaller than normal room. In it, a bed sat with red covers, as well as a oak bookcase and a closet. In one corner, sat a small basket meant to be a bed for Chuchu. The female Pikachu glared at it before hopping on the bed and settling beside a drowsy Yellow. Moonlight filtered in through the window in the left-right corner.

Yellow stared at the letter again, reading it over, disbelief still fluttering inside her. It was just hard to believe that an ordinary girl like her could ever be chosen. _Maybe I should tell uncle about this, _she smiled. _He might support me in being a knight, after all, it's one of the most coveted jobs in the world._

As she thought this, her eyes closed and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

When the blonde girl woke up, she felt slightly dizzy. Standing over her, Chuchu was muttering something unintelligible. When the female Pokemon noticed she was awake, the electric-type jumped back, ears shaking.

_G-Good morning!_ Chuchu greeted, black eyes glittering nervously.

Yellow ignored her strange behavior and instead turned her attention to the letter that lay crushed underneath her. She smoothed the wrinkles out and searched the envelope for the Starmie brooch. Finding the purple and red star-shaped accessory, she tossed if from hand to hand, curious why she needed to wear such a thing. Still, she placed the brooch on her shirt and positioned it for others to be able to see.

_Oh! I need to tell uncle!_ Yellow leaped off her bed and began to search the house for her relative. Seeing him nowhere in sight, the girl glanced outside a window. _Didn't he say he went to town though?_ The blonde bit her lip. _I should go and tell him right now, so that way I can make sure he approves._

She rushed back to her room to gather the rest of her outfit. Chuchu, although having woken up early, regarded the girl with glazed eyes, cheeks sparking. Yellow laughed at the Pokemon poking her with a finger. "Wake up, Chuchu."

_I'm up,_ the Pokemon growled, still wobbling with sleep, obviously not helping her point.

Yellow smiled at that, slipping on her straw hat to hide her ponytail. She walked towards the door and stopped, glancing over her shoulder to Chuchu. "Coming?"

The Pikachu nodded, shaking away the last bits of sleep before swiftly climbing onto Yellow's shoulder. She did a fist-pump. _Let's go!_

Yellow nodded and they took off to the nearest human populated area, a place by the name of Pallet Town. Tugging at the edges of her straw hat, the girl began to walk on the perfectly paved dirt path towards her destination.

"You know," she started, "I wonder what this trial is going to be."

Chuchu narrowed her eyes at her trainer. _What trial?_

"The one this letter promised," she handed the piece of paper to her Pokemon.

The Pokemon read it, black eyes scanning each word. Yellow waited quietly for the Pikachu's reaction, hoping she would not get angry at her for trusting in some random letter. Unfortuneatly, Mew was being very unkind to the girl.

_Why are you even going with this plan?_ Chuchu snapped. _How do you know that someone won't just up and kidnap you?_ _For all we know, this _knight_ could be some sick-minded person who would like to just kill you for sport! I wouldn't trust anything this person says._

Yellow raised her hands in an apologetic manner. "Well, it's true that I can't really trust anything someone says, but why would they give me this then?" she pointed to the Starmie brooch.

Chuchu rolled her eyes, tail whipping back and forth. She put her nose in the air. _Whatever, your funeral._

Yellow sweatdropped at that, and turned her attention to the town growing rapidly in size. Upon reaching the end of the dirt path and the start of a concrete one, she stepped into the beginnings of the town. The occupants of Pallet Town glanced at her, sniffed, and then went back to their everyday chores. Yellow felt slightly embarresed by the attention.

When entering the area, Yellow noticed the large amounts of Pokemon that wandered about. A flock of Pidgey rested on a red-roofed building, chattering loudly. Some Rattata chirped at her, tail waving as they snatched fallen apples off the grass. One Fearow perched at the edge of a market stall, glaring at every passer-byer.

Chuchu glanced around before staring at something in the distance. Yellow followed the Pikachu's gaze and saw ripe red apples that sat in a box on a market stall. Chuchu licked her lips and pointed to the food. _Apples, _she demanded fiercely.

"I don't have enough-"

_Apples,_ Chuchu whined, tail flicking back and forth.

Yellow sighed, and took out a few coins from her pocket. "Fine."

Approaching the market vendor, she examined the apples to look for a deep red one and, finding it, looked at the salesperson. "I'll take this one," she pointed to the apple, and in the corner of her eyes noticed Chuchu nodding in approval.

"That will be six coins, dear," the old lady at the stand said, holding out a wrinkled hand. Yellow placed her coins carefully on it. "Thank you. Take your apple and leave."

Yellow nodded, picked up the apple, and handed it to Chuchu. The Pikachu grinned and dug her teeth into it, taking half the fruit in her mouth. She chew three times before swallowing and taking another bite. _Delicious!_

"I'm glad you like it."

The girl continued moving through the crowded streets, searching for her uncle. He was no where in sight. Frowning, Yellow looked around one more time. "I don't see him anywhere..."

Just then, the crowd of people suddenly parted, leaving a huge gap with the blonde grl standing in the middle of it. Suddenly nervous at why no one was around her, she glanced over her shoulder and gasped.

A Dodrio was moving at a rapid pace towards her. On top of it, a man sat with a brown bag clutched in his hands. He cackled, eyes gleaming malevolently from behind a black mask.

"Pika, use Thunderbolt!" someone cried.

Yellow was snapped out of her daze and she began scrambling towards the edges of the crowd to safety, only, she was too late. The man's Dodrio collided with her, sharp talons scratching the back of her clothing as it stumbled over. Cries of anger were heard from both the Pokemon and man.

Seconds later, a golden flash of electricity zapped the four, narrowly missing Yellow. Chuchu, who had fallen with Yellow and was now sprawled on the ground, sent a Thunderbolt of her own at the attacker.

"Ah! Pika!"

Yellow turned her head to see a black spiky-haired trainer heading their way, approaching a Pikachu very similar to her own. The electric mouse caught Yellow's eyes and growled, ears and tail waving in an almost unfriendly way. Chuchu copied the Pokemon, snarling and red cheeks sparking with energy.

The boy previously mentioned picked up the mouse, and glanced over at Yellow. "I'm so sorry if you got hurt, I only meant to hit that thief over there," he jerked a thumb to the man and his Dodrio.

She looked at him with surprise and slowly got to her feet, pain throbbing in her right arm. Flexing it slowly, the blonde girl smiled at the newcomer. "You didn't hurt me," was all she said.

Whispers floated up from the crowd of people who had been watching so far. They made no move to apprehend the thief, but instead turned their attention to Yellow and the boy. Pika and Chuchu snapped at eachother, hands curled up into fists.

The spiky-haired boy grinned. "Nice to know. I'm Red, by the way."

Yellow's eyes widened as he held out a hand. A Starmie pin brooch was hooked onto his sleeve, sporting the same colors as Yellow's. She was just about to ask him about it when a shadow loomed over her.

"You know, you really should be paying attention," a deep voice snarled.

Suddenly, Yellow was knocked down to the ground by the Dodrio's feet, face planted into the concrete path. Pain coursed through her, agony ripping at her body. Beside her, Red groaned, reaching for a Pokeball.

"Saur, use Vine Whip," he croaked, weakly tossing the Pokeball.

In mere seconds, a green shape appeared out of no where, vines slithering out of a dark green bulb and striking it's target. A Bulbasaur. Yellow painfully turned her head to see the black-masked man clutching at his left arm, stumbling back. Red's creature seemed to have damaged the arm while fighting against the Dodrio.

Chuchu and Pika, meanwhile, snapped out of their fighting daze and used Thunderbolt on the thief's Pokemon. The bird cried out in fury, the three heads clacking their beaks as they prepared to launch an attack. However, that attack never came as Pika and Chuchu unleased Thunder upon the poor creature, sending them fainting. The man, recovering from the initial pain Saur had caused him, grimaced and began to flee, the bag still clutched tightly in his hands.

_W-Wait, b-boss!_ the three Dodrio heads cried out simultaneously, painfully beginning to drag themselves towards the direction their trainer had headed. Yellow felt pity for the birds and she tried to stand on her feet, wobbling. Upon standing, she rushed over to the injured Pokemon, placing a hand over their necks. They glared at her. _What are you doing?_ they hissed.

"Healing you up," she replied with a gentle smile. After all, it wasn't like she could leave poor injured Pokemon to lay around like dead animals.

Chuchu hopped onto Yellow's shoulder, glaring fiercely at the Pokemon before her. _Yellow, are you sure you should be healing enemies?_

"They may have hurt us, but that doesn't mean we should neglect them," she whispered back, a green aura seeping out of her palms and onto the birds.

Red walked over to her, a small scratch across his cheek beginning to leak crimson. Pika sauntered up to the three, staring at Yellow. _What are you doing?_ he snapped at the blonde. _Healing our enemies?_

Chuchu looked at the Pikachu and scowled. _What do you think she's doing? Killing them?_

_Yeah, sure, let's go with that,_ Pika snorted sarcastically._ A little girl killing a Pokemon with a glowing green aura, oh Mew, save them!_

Chuchu snickered, grinning. _Nice One._

Red stumbled over to Yellow, red and white cap tipped forward to shade is eyes from view. The boy only hovered over her, silent as he watched the girl finish healing the Pokemon. Yellow smiled, and stroked the Dodrio's chin.

"All better," she cooed. "You can go now."

It blinked up at her, brown eyes wide with astonishment. _You're just letting me escape?_

A nod. "Of course I am. Just...don't get into anymore trouble. Find another trainer to live with."

The Dodrio rose, all three heads glancing uncertainly at Red. He only stood there, giving no reaction as the bird dashed in the direction its trainer had fled to, glancing back guiltily at Yellow. Sighing, the blonde picked up Chuchu and glanced at the boy beside her.

"You okay?" she asked, noticing the bruises on the side of his face.

Red lifted his hat up with a thumb and looked over at her. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Heal that Pokemon! Don't you know that Pokemon raised by low-lifes such as that thief can seriously harm you, even _kill_ you?" his voice sounded angered and as his namesake eyes met her gold ones, she noticed the fury located within them. "Why would you take such a _stupid_ risk for _that_?" he gestured to the disappearing Dodrio.

"I-I couldn't just leave the Pokemon to suffer," she pointed out, a bit happy that someone cared for her well-being. "Besides, why do you ask?"

Pika glared at the girl and her Pikachu, electricty sparking from crimson cheeks. His tail waving back and forth, black eyes narrowed. _Don't you dare to question Red about _that_, pitiful human!_ he snapped, teeth bared.

Red's gaze rested on Pika before drifting away, the anger being smoldered into sadness. "It's nothing...just something personal."

"O-Oh, I-I'm sorry then," she backed away a little bit, Chuchu looking up with intrigue as silence wrapped around them.

_You better be,_ snarled Pika.

Chuchu leaped out of Yellow's arms and swatted the Pikachu. _Don't talk to her like that, _she growled, swiping claws at him. This led to a full on fight of teeth, claws, and electric shocks. Pika snapped at Chuchu, digging teeth into her left ear. She retaliated with quick double slaps of her tail.

"Pika, _return_," Red growled, shooting a red beam of light at the Pikachu.

Caught by surprise, the yellow creature was snapped up into a Pokeball. After a quick clicking sound, Pika was seen clawing at the see-through red top, eyes narrowed at Chuchu and Yellow.

Red glanced up at Yellow. "I'm sorry for his actions," and then he took off in the direction of the thief, sprinting swiftly out of view before the girl could chase after him.

Chuchu sneered at him, leaping onto Yellow's shoulder. _Serves that stupid Pikachu right, living inside of a Pokeball. Hopefully it's for the rest of his life._

"Chuchu!" the girl exclaimed, startled at the Pikachu's spiteful personality.

_What?_ she glanced over at Yellow._ I'm just stating what I think should happen to that idiot rodent of a Pokemon. Besides, are you hurt anywhere? Did that man manage to wound you?_ she began sniffing the air._ I smell blood_.

Yellow suddenly noticed the Pokemon was right as she spotted the crimson blood spreading across her left hand from a cut. Eyes wide with shock, she stumbled back and let out a cry of pain. Nearby people glanced at her, but did nothing to help, and instead raised their noses into the air.

"Are you alright, miss knight?" a deep voice asked.

Chuchu and Yellow looked behind them to come face to face with a spiky red-headed boy with a Dragonite at his side. Amber eyes regarded the injury and he brought out a roll of bandages. Tugging her hand carefully, he began to wrap it, gingerly tightning it. The Dragonite glanced around wearily while Chuchu kept her eyes on the newcomer.

Once the red-head stopped wrapping her cut, Yellow glanced at him with grateful eyes. "T-Thank you...u-um..."

"Lance," he offered.

"Y-Yes, t-thank you, Lance."

He helped her up and grinned. "Congratulations, fellow knight of the Kanto kingdom."

The blonde girl looked at him with shock. "Wait, what...?"

"You just passed your trial to become a knight, Amarillo del Bosque Verde. Naturally, you passed it with flying colors."

Chuchu rubbed the back of her head with her tail, an action she did whenever she was puzzled or stressed out. Most likely puzzled at this point. _How did Yellow become a knight?_

Lance stared at the Pikachu and smiled gently. "She became a knight by healing that Dodrio instead of abandoning it, little one."

Both Pokemon and trainer did a double-take. How did he understand Chuchu's speech? Yellow stared at him with wide eyes, confusion written on her face. Lance glanced at his Dragonite, which only frowned back in return. He sighed.

"Yes, I can understand Pokemon too, if that's what you're wondering," after a confirming nod from Yellow, he continued. "It's something I was born with. Anyways, good job on passing your test. Although, we were hoping you'd come a bit later, after Red had finished his battle. Well, you both passed, so I suppose all is well."

"Wait, this was planned?" she asked, stunned.

Lance nodded. "Yep, that 'thief' was really just a fellow worker of ours. The Dodrio was a part of this as well, he was your trial," seeing the blank face of Yellow, he explained, "Healing the enemy even in a sense of danger. You helped that Pokemon, even if it was an accomplice of a villain. That's something only a true knight would do."

Chuchu growled. _So we beat up that guy just for a stupid trial? And Yellow got hurt because of it, what kind of people are you!_

The red-head chuckled, black gloved-hands tapping the Pikachu's head. Chuchu glared up at him, but made no attempt to move. _And where is uncle, on top of that? _she growled.

Yellow glanced at her partner. "Uncle," she whispered the word once before beginning to panic. "That's right, where's uncle? We haven't seen him at all since the trial began!" she looked up at Lance. "Where is he?" she demanded fiercely.

Another chuckle. "Safe, of course. He's known about this the whole time."

"W-What? H-How?"

"Because I was the one who asked 'em to test you."

Yellow's uncle loomed into sight, a fishing pole loosely held in his heads. The girl ran up to him and flung her arms around him. "Oh uncle, you're okay!"

"Why wouldn't I be, Amarillo?" he said, laughing.

_Oh, I don't know, you could've possibly been murdered by these mysterious people without us knowing, _Chuchu rolled her eyes.

But, of course, the man couldn't understand her. Ears twitching, Chuchu sniffed and let her head sit on Yellow's shoulder, annoyed that Yellow's uncle couldn't hear her.

Yellow ignored her and instead focused on her uncle. "So do I really have to go far away and train in some castle?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm...sorry for that. But I thought you'd like to have a new life away from here. You don't have anything to live for here. No friends to play with, no responsibilities. It would be best for you if you went somewhere new, 'stead of hanging around here with no one you know."

She stared at him like he was a murderer. "B-But, uncle, I have you! Y-You're someone I know! P-Please, I-I don't want to be away from you."

Guilt shimmered in his brown eyes. "You have Chuchu to keep you company," he whispered. "Besides, you can visit me on the holidays."

"But-"

"Amarillo!" the man snapped, causing Yellow to reel back in fright. "I'm doing what's best for you, so go with that man and join the knights. You need them more than me."

"U-Uncle!" she whispered, tears streaking down her cheeks.

He turned away. "It's for your own good, Amarillo," her uncle began to walk away, ignoring the cries of Yellow as she watched him.

_W-What are you doing, y-you...jerk of a relative! _Chuchu snapped, energy oozing from her body.

Yellow could only sniffle, shaking as she watched her uncle fade from view. Lance stood quietly, his Dragonite remaining silent as brown eyes narrowed. A few minutes passed, and Yellow felt like hiding from the world. _But, I need to go, I need to do as uncle said...e-...even is he abandoned me._ Face still wet, she tried a half-hearted smile at Lance, still visibly trembling.

"T-Take me to the kingdom," she mumbled, almost reluctantly.

"So you accept being a knight?"

"Yes."

"Then get on Dragonite."

Yellow obeyed, climbing onto the cream Pokemon alongside Lance, Chuchu now resting on her straw hat. They took off, and began to fly across the darkening blue sky. Stars twinkled restlessly, shedding pale light on the girl as she repeated her uncle's words in her mind.

_You don't have anything to live for here._

**So, yay, Yellow meets Red and becomes a knight! I know I'm being a bit mysterious about the knights of Kanto, but keep in mind they're kind of a secret organization so no one really knows much about them except the members themselves. Ah, it will be explained later.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, although it was probably sucky -is very pessimistic-. Oh, and don't forget to review!**

**Fluttersong out!**


	2. Chapter 2 - A Meeting of Many

**So I'm back with chapter two of Pokespecial Knights! Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed this story, but also thanks to the people who reviewed like reader terrible-writer, Pure Gamer, Daownlyone, Glaceon1362, and JBEMT.**

**Also, I'd like to say to Daownlyone thanks for correcting me on that because I probably wouldn't have caught that by myself. So yeah, now Pika is being held in a Fast Ball, since it makes more sense to have him in an Apricorn ball than a Poke Ball that's made by future companies like Silph Co.**

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own Pokemon or Pokemon Special else I'd make all the shippings canon.**

**Chapter 2 - A Meeting of Many**

Red didn't know why he had abandoned the girl on the streets, when normally he would've stayed and helped such a stranger. He only knew that he couldn't stand to see her heal such a dangerous, unpredictable Pokemon. The scene reminded him of something horribly familiar. A scene in which a woman treats a hostile Pokemon, only to find herself killed in a single strike, sprawled across the ground.

Even now, those same images rained down on him, the only difference being that the woman was replaced with the blonde girl as she innocently healed the Dodrio. Gritting his teeth, Red kept sprinting down Pallet Town, head swinging to and fro to look for the thief from earlier. He passed houses and walls, Still, hs thoughts linger on the one woman and the connection between her and the girl. _I don't want to see anyone else die like her._

Pika's Fast Ball shook in his hands, the tiny mouse scratching at the see-through top, electricity snapping at the ball. It was obvious the Pokemon was angry, and Red couldn't blame him. He was being imprisoned in the sphere, and Pika _hated_ to be a prisoner.

Holding the ball up to his face, Red smiled apologetically and clicked the button. Pika emerged, growling as he occupied the black-haired trainer's shoulder. Red scratched the Pikachu's chin, resulting in a reluctant coo from the yellow mouse.

Seconds later, he found himself at a dead end. Trash cans leaned against brick walls, and Rattatas perched on the black surfaces, curled tails swinging as they watched him. But that was not the strangest part.

A girl with orange hair and amber eyes glanced down at him from the wall, holding a Staryu. She giggled at the sight of the boy.

"So you passed your trial, I see," she laughed, sliding down from her spot.

Red regarded her wearily, unsure of what to make of her. "What trial?" he asked.

"Oh, the one where you go and beat a bad guy. But you let your target go...," she shrugged and smiled. "Whatever, you still passed your test, so I guess everything's fine."

"Who are you?"

The orange-haired girl sighed in exasperation, waving a hand in the air like she was fanning herself. "People are so uneducated these days, I swear. Ever heard the name of Misty Waters?"

His namesake eyes widened in surprise. "You mean...?"

She nodded. "That's me. One of the leaders of the Kanto kingdom, and the best user of only water-type Pokemon!" she beamed, sapphire blue eyes shining proudly.

"So, why are you here then?"

Misty rolled her eyes. "Seriously, did you forget the whole test thing in the letter we sent you?"

He stared at her, puzzled by her words. Then, images of a cream letter flashed in his mind and realization crossed his face. "Kind of," he admitted. "But I just remembered."

The girl shook her head before grabbing a Pokeball. "Jeez, why do they even bother sending me to pick up recruits these days?" she muttered before staring at Red. "So do you accept?"

"Accept what?"

"_Argh, you are so _dense_!_ Do you accept becoming a knight or not?"

"Y-Yeah, I do," Red was a bit surprised by her impatient attitude. Pika snored gently from his shoulder.

"Good, then get on this Starmie," Misty tossed out a Pokeball, releasing a purple star-shaped Pokemon with a red center.

"Why? It's not like it can fly."

The Starmie, angered by this statement, flung itself at Red and proceeded to attack him with multiple bursts of star-shaped lights. Swift. Pika seemed oblivious to the attacks, merely rolling on his side. _Some helpful Pokemon you are,_ Red thought to himself with a quick glance at it. The Starmie hit Red again, causing the boy to flinch and glare up at it.

"Alright, alright, I get it! The purple starfish can fly!"

Misty's Pokemon seemed satisfied by Red's words and knocked him onto it's gem, ignoring his cries of panic as it lifted into the air. Purple legs spinning, the Starmie swiftly moved across the sky. Misty and her Staryu caught up a few minutes later.

"Isn't this fun?" she asked, closing her eyes as wind slid past her skin.

_Not really, _Red thought to himself, the fear of falling off the starfish growing with each second. He just couldn't find a way to trust some floating purple star that blinked it's red gem at him menacingly.

Trying to ignore his anxiety, he instead focused on thinking about his new future as a knight.

~Yellow's POV~

Yellow arrived in the castle at dusk.

Looking at the distance, she could see the beautiful blue's and purple's of the sky, mixed with leftover shades of pink and orange. The Kanto castle was blanketed in these colors, creating an awe-inspiring scene.

Lance's Dragonite settled at the very bottom of the concrete building, feet touching the ground just as another Pokemon joined them. It was an Onix. Rock body twisting on the ground, it lowered it's head, black eyes regarding Yellow and Lance cautiously as it's tail swiped side to side. Two people hopped off, much to Yellow's surprise.

"Hey, I see you got your recruit!" one of the newcomers shouted.

Lance glanced at the person wearily. It was a man with spiky dark brown hair and chocolate-colored skin. Beside him, a brunette girl who wore a black dress and white gloves. She regarded Lance and Yellow with mischevious eyes, skipping alongside the other newcomer.

"So I did, got a problem against that, Brock?" Lance sighed.

The man, Brock, grinned and walked up to them. He glanced at Yellow once before turning his attention back to Lance. The girl from before followed his lead and stood beside him, eyes gleaming mischeviously.

"Ah, you're no fun, Lance. Way too serious," Brock returned his Onix, who simply yawned before being absorbed into the Heavy ball. "You should try acting fun for once."

Yellow laughed at that, despite her depression from earlier. Brock and the girl laughed too, leaving Lance as the only one with a serious attitude. Chuchu and Dragonite looked at them, rolling their eyes in exasperation. After giggling for a few moments, the three came to their senses and faced the castle.

"That's such a big castle!" the girl murmured in awe. "Full of riches and treasure, probably," Yellow watched in fear as the girl rubbed her hands together, a dark shadow crossing her face.

"Blue, you might want to be careful around here," Brock warned her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The brunette sighed and looked up. "Okay, Brock. For you," Blue put on a grin. "But you never know, just when someone isn't looking..."

She was inturrupted by Lance coughing, drawing attention from the trio and their Pokemon. "We should get going now, or we're going to be missed."

They nodded and the red-headed man led them inside to a tunnel lit only by torches. The scent of smoke hung in the air, oddly reminding Yellow of Red. Pulling her straw hat over her eyes, the girl moved a bit faster.

Chuchu waddled behind her, looking around cautiously before sitting on Yellow's shoulder. The female Pikachu seemed concerned about her surroundings, remaining oddly silent as the four walked down the tunnel. However, as soon as they reached the exit, the Pikachu perked up.

The new room before them was huge. Many people rushed through multiple halls, carrying silver plates and important-looking documents. Yellow noticed a peculiar handful of students her age sitting in the middle, staring at the newcomers with confusion. Aside from the sound of people running and flames burning from the chandelier overhead, it was silent.

Finally, the quiet was broken when a red-head stepped forward and stared at Blue with oddly silver eyes. He watched her quietly before speaking. "Sis?"

Blue froze when she heard that, she looked at the boy, taking him in, before realization dawned on her face. Yellow glanced back and forth at them, puzzled by their actions. Abruptly, Blue gave a cry of joy, running forward and tackling the boy. Embracing him tightly, tears could be shown leaking from her eyes.

"Silver! I thought I'd never see you again!" she murmured, chocolate locks of brown hair spilling over the red-head's face.

The boy named Silver patted her awkardly on the back, before pulling away and locking black-gloved fingers with her white-gloved ones. They smiled at eachother, eyes both wet.

"Uh, what's going on here?" a boy with spiky black bangs that reminded Yellow of Red asked.

Silver looked over at him. "This's my sister, Gold, Blue Rose."

Gold stared at Blue a bit. "She doesn't seem related to you at all."

"That's because we're not really related, it's...it's a long story," Blue said, reluctantly dropping her hands to glance at the spiky-haired person.

Another boy stepped up, sporting spiky brown hair. Narrowing emerald green eyes at them, he spoke in a slightly deep voice. "That's great and all, but why are you here?" he directed the question to Lance and Brock, and yet he glared at Blue and Silver as if he was speaking to them. "I thought we weren't getting any more arrivals."

Yellow disliked the boy immediatly, fearing the scary black aura that hung over him.

Lance cleared his throat and looked around. "A great question to ask, Green. We had a lot of people that qualified to be knights, so be patient. After all, we have one more member to wait for," his gaze shifted to Blue and Yellow. "Why don't you two get aquainted while we-" he gestured to Brock and himself, "-go and talk to the others."

The blonde girl nodded numbly as the two men walked away, leaving her alone among a crowd of strangers. Blue and Silver, having been reunited, turned away from the others and occupied the seats on a brown leather sofa, chatting among themselves. Green scowled, and returned to his place on a cherry wood chair, pulling out a leather bound book and beginning to read it. Gold sighed as he watched Silver leave, sitting in-between Green and a blue-haired girl with anti-gravity pigtails.

Yellow stood there, trying to ignore the curious stares of everyone as she looked for a place to sit. Finding one, an empty couch hanging out in a dark corner, she went over to it and took a seat.

Not too long after she sat down, two new strangers emerged. One was a red-headed girl holding a Staryu while another was a familiar-looking boy, holding a glaring Pikachu in rain-covered arms. A Starmie followed the boy, red gem flashing indignantly. The girl glanced at all of them, her gaze barely lingering on Yellow, before she left the room and into the tunnel Lance had left in. Seconds later, the Starmie followed, jewel still glowing.

"Red!" Yellow couldn't help but cry out in surprise as she recognized the boy, drawing the gazes of the other occupants of the room.

The black-haired boy glanced up, spotted her, and gave a half-hearted smile. "Oh, it's you. Hey."

Blue strode up to them, Silver by her side. Her azure blue eyes gazed deviously between the two, and she smiled. "You guys know each other?"

"Sort of," Yellow mumbled.

The spiky-haired boy glanced at Blue with crimson eyes. "We met eachother at our trials," the words seemed bland, like he didn't care what he was talking about.

"Aw, did you do anything else? Like feel a connection or spark between you two?" Blue was grinning now.

"Sis," Silver warned, almost as if he was sensing the brunette's intentions.

Yellow stared at the blue-eyed girl in confusion. "Well...I did almost get zapped by his Pikachu, does that count?"

Blue sighed, shook her head, and looked at Red. The boy merely stared back, namesake eyes narrowed. "I don't know what you're implying," a note of anger, "but I just met this girl."

_What exactly are they talking about? _Yellow asked herself, watching the two.

Chuchu, however, seemed to know what Blue was saying and growled at the girl. Zapping Blue with a jolt of electricity, she smiled smugly when the brunette squeaked and retreated behind her brother, glaring daggers at Chuchu. _That'll teach you._

Red's Pikachu glanced sideways at the Pokemon. _Nice._

_Thank you_. Chuchu did a mock bow, snickering to herself and soon joined in by Pika.

"Your Pikachu is mean," Blue pouted, still hiding behind Silver, who merely sighed at his sister's childish behavior.

"No one cares," the spiky-haired brunette with green eyes from before spoke out, rather loudly despite seeming deeply involved in his book.

Blue looked over at him, cheeks puffed. "Who asked for your opinion, mister?"

Green glanced over at her, eyebrow perked in amusement. "No one, I just thought it would be in everyone's interest to say that."

Red chuckled at that, much to Blue's disappointment. The older girl huffed, grabbed Silver by his wrist, and dragged him to the couch they were sitting on before. She glared at Yellow, Chuchu, Green, and Red before turning her attention to her brother and muttering unintelligible words.

It was at that moment Lance emerged, followed by Brock, the red-headed girl from earlier, and a long-haired woman with dark green eyes. The woman regarded each person with an icy gaze, seeming to study them. Her hair floated ominously before her, twisting around her. Yellow didn't recognize her at all, but from what she had heard, this was Sabrina, one of the least known knights but a leader of them none the less. A woman with psychic powers, if Yellow remembered correctly.

Lance cleared his throat and waited until everyone was staring at him and quiet to talk.

"Welcome, boys and girls, to the Kanto kingdom. What we are in now, is the headquarters for the knights, called Saffron Castle," a few gasps and murmurs went up around the crowd, and Yellow just looked around in shock. This was the famous Saffron Castle? The building known to withstand the attacks of five thousand Pokemon? Yellow felt more excited to be inside the building.

Lance continued. "Yes, yes, very exciting. Anyways, we have brought you here to explain a few things. Before you become knights you must take an oath." A few grumbles.

The red-head stepped forward, head high. "You must follow our rules." No surprise there, even Yellow knew there was going to be_ some _sort of laws.

Sabrina moved forward, miscellaneous objects orbiting around her. A purple aura surrounded each individual thing, and Yellow noticed with some interest that Sabrina's eyes had taken on the same purple color. "You must obey any orders we give." Again, no surprise.

Brock shuffled forward, grinning. "And finally, you must always remain loyal and never leak information to _anyone_." Everyone nodded at this.

"These are the things we expect you to follow. If you fail to do so, and break them in any shape or form, there will be severe consequences," Lance narrowed his eyes, looking at each individual canidate with a dark look. Yellow flinched when his gaze rested on her, sighing momentarily after he moved past her to Red. "Are we all on the same page?"

Nods rippled through the small crowd, and Yellow found herself among them. As Lance went on to talk about how they were going to travel around to their academy for being a knight, the blonde girl began to space off. She knew it was probably not the best idea to ignore Lance, but she couldn't help it. Her uncle's words still ringed in her mind, making the blonde's heart sink. Why would he do that to her? How _could_ he? The questions made her clench her fists in anger.

When she focused back into the world around her, she was startled to see each candidate hopping onto different flying type Pokemon. Red was sitting nervously on the red-head's Starmie. Blue, Silver, Green, Gold and the pigtailed girl from earlier were climbing onto Brock's Onix, while three other people wearing scarves took another Onix. An Aerodactyl carried two canidates with brown hair, looking rather annoyed as one shouted loudly about becoming a knight and beating everyone and everything. Then there were two other people who were lifted into the air by an Alakazam, finding themselves floating towards Sabrina. After a bit, they hovered next to the girl and then blinked out of existence via teleportation.

A shadow loomed over Yellow and the girl found herself looking up and into the eyes of Lance. The man cleared his throat. "Did you hear a word I said?"

She shook her head, suddenly too shy to talk.

Lance sighed and pointed to Dragonite. "Climb on and I'll take you to the Kanto Knights Academy, unless you'd rather quit now?"

Yellow shook her head and mutely sat on Lance's Dragonite. Chuchu scratched an ear with her tail, black eyes scanning around. The Pikachu seemed a bit worried at something, but Yellow dismissed it as a case of anxiety at being somewhere new. Lance took a seat beside the girl and pointed towards entrance in which they had all come in.

"Let's go!" he shouted, and Dragonite took off at an alarming speed.

~Crystal's POV~

Crystal was never a fan of riding on the back of an Onix.

The rock-type Pokemon was just so _uncomfortable_ to sit on. The boulders that made up it's body were rough, scratching against the palms of her hands as she tried to hold on. Not to mention, the gaps in between each boulder that opened and closed with each movement the Onix made, made Crystal feel like she was going to fall and get crushed by a giant rock.

At least she had two other people to hold her back, if she should fall forward and topple dangerously to the side. In front of her, a spiky-haired boy with a pool cue in hand was doing a fist-pump in the air, saying something about how this academy was going to be awesome and how he was going to totally beat everyone in battle. Crystal tried to remember his name. Wasn't it something with a G? Green? Nah, that was the boy behind her. Gary? Of course not. Gold? Yeah, that was it.

Gold did another fist-pump, but it quickly came to a halt when he nearly tipped over. The Onix glanced at him, looking quite amused as he scrambled back into a safe position. Brock's Pokemon slithered across the floor of a forest, sunlight dappling it's gray body as it constantly ducked under trees.

It was strange though, that Brock didn't own any flying type Pokemon. Crystal had always heard that the knight owned an Aerodactyl, but maybe not since he wasn't letting them ride on it. Or was it because it couldn't hold five people all at once? That was probably the most logical reason why, if Brock truly did own an Aerodactyl, that he wasn't letting them take it.

The Onix made a rumbling sound, as if sounding a warning, before all hell broke out.

Next thing Crystal knew, she was being thrown back into the air. Slamming against the trunk of a tree, the wind was knocked out of her. Stunned by the sudden impact and loss of air, she slid down and landed on the forest floor in an awkard postion similar to that of a doll tossed at the ground. Head barely tipped forward, back against the trunk of a tree, arms and legs splayed out, her eyes closed and she lost conscious.

**So, all in all, I think this chapter was leaning more towards introductions than actual plot and such. But a few things are mentioned in here, like Saffron Castle and Sabrina being one of the leaders of the knights (which everyone probably saw coming after seeing Misty and Brock.)**

**Anyways, next chapter shall deal more with the antagonists with the story. And no, it's not Team Rocket. Sorry to disappoint anyone there, but nope :D. Besides, I can't even add them in if I wanted to since they have to do with, you know, **_**rockets**_** and I think we all know those didn't exist at these times.**

**Also, don't forget to review!**

**Fluttersong out~**


	3. Chapter 3 - Explosions and Flashbacks

**Okay, prepare for a LONG chapter.**

**Chapter 3 - Explosions and Flashbacks**

_Previously:_

_Next thing Crystal knew, she was being thrown back into the air. Slamming against the trunk of a tree, the wind was knocked out of her. Stunned by the sudden impact and loss of air, she slid down and landed on the forest floor in an awkward position similar to that of a doll tossed at the ground. Head barely tipped forward, back against the trunk of a tree, arms and legs splayed out, her eyes closed and she lost conscious._

**Gold's PoV**

Gold was usually all for explosions and such, but he only enjoyed them when he was _watching _them, not being blown up into the air by them.

After something had exploded beneath them, Gold and the other knight candidates had been thrown off Brock's Onix. Gold, amongst all the confusion, had slipped out a Friend ball from his coat pocket and released Explotaro, his Typlosion. The fire-type, having quickly taken in the situation, snatched Gold from the air just before the boy slammed against the trunk of a pine tree.

Nettles barely scratched Gold's skin as Explotaro fell, expertly dodging branches on the way down. With a huff, the Typlosion landed, head raised defiantly while Gold slipped his goggles over his eyes. Red and gold eyes searched the area for any sign of what had attacked them. They found nothing but a KO'ed Onix and a boy hovering on a Charizard wearing a purple shirt and blue jeans. Green.

The brunette ordered his Pokemon to the ground, and the dragon obeyed, spiralling to the ground. Landing softly, Green slipped off his Charizard and glanced wearily around. "It seems like whoever attacked us is gone."

Gold nodded, but still clutched the neck of his Typlosion. Something still seemed off...where were the two girls from earlier? And where was Silver? Seeking them, he found the girl known with anti-gravity pigtails lying against the back of a tree, but the brunette one was nowhere in sight. Green, too, searched for her but they couldn't seem to find her.

That was when a Jigglypuff landed in front of them, panting from the effort of holding a brunette girl. Gold sighed in relief, having expecting something worse. Green walked over to her, a bit cautiously, before placing a finger to her neck. He stayed still for a bit before giving a confirming nod to Gold that she was alive.

But that left Silver. However, the boy was quickly found when he stumbled out from the trees, leaning against a Feraligator. Namesake eyes glared at them. "What happened?" he growled. "And where's Brock?"

Gold widened his eyes in shock when he realized he forgot their leader. But he had little time to think as a Pidgeot landed in front of them, carrying a black-clad figure. The person smirked at them from underneath a mask, face hidden in the shadows of the night, before speaking in a voice that made Gold believe it was a male. "Who, perhaps this man, you mean?" He shoved a man in shackles in front of him.

Gasps came from the trio of boys beneath the Pidgeot. It was Brock, their escort and leader. The knight looked at them, shaking his head calmly as if accepting his fate as prisoner. He mouthed 'don't do anything'. Gold clenched his fists at the sight and glared up at the figure. "Why are you taking him?" he shouted.

The man chuckled. "Ah, such a simple question and yet I'm afraid I can't answer it. Here, let me occupy you with my friend here," he held up a Fast Ball, threw it, and released a Nidoking. "Use Hyper Beam!"

They had no time to prepare as they were all thrown back at the force. The black figure snickered before taking off, Brock still shackled and held prisoner. Then, much to Gold's, Green's, and Silver's surprise, the Nidoking halted its attack, glancing at where it's owner disappeared with panic. "Nidoooo!" it bellowed, starting to chase after the fleeing figure and completely ignoring orders.

Silver moved first, pointing a finger at the pink Pokemon. "Hydro Pump!"

Feraligator released a blast of water at the ground and poison type, effectively weakening it. With a snarl, the Pokemon faced him and prepared another Hyper Beam, only to be slammed into by Green's Charizard. The Nidoking cried out in pain, panting, as red eyes glaring at Silver and Green before collapsing to the ground. Silver tossed a Moon Ball at the Nidoking.

The sphere hit, opened, and absorbed the Pokemon. Nidoking let out a wail before being silenced. Shaking once...twice...thrice, the Moon Ball clicked and signaled the Nidoking was caught, much to everyone's surprise. Silver simply narrowed his eyes.

"Like I thought. That man released his Pokemon in an effort to ditch it."

Gold stared at him, startled. "W-What do you mean?"

Green answered for Silver, nodding in approval. "What he's saying is that that man abandoned his Pokemon, the Nidoking, in order to escape. Silver was able to capture it because of that."

"Oooh, I get it now...I guess," Gold glanced at the Moon Ball, watching as Silver slid it into his pocket. "So does this mean we can use it to help us, then?"

The sound of movement from nearby and everyone glanced at the pigtailed girl at the base of a tree. Her light blue eyes regarded them blankly, before she snapped to attention and sent out a Meganium. "Who did this?" she growled.

The three boys stared at her, confused before realizing she was talking about the explosion from earlier. Gold rolled his eyes at her serious ways and grinned, suddenly forgetting about the figure who had just appeared before him as he saw the girl clench her fists. "A Electrode happened to strode by, saw you, and exploded in fear."

Seconds later, Gold found himself hit in the face by a Pokeball. The girl had thrown it at him, puffing in anger from his joke. Her Meganium growled, golden eyes glaring at him before antenna began whipping at the air. Explotaro snarled in response.

"What was that for?" he muttered.

"What do you _think_?" she retorted. "Insulting me, of course."

"Can't you take a little joke, Super Serious Gal?"

This, of course, landed him with another Pokeball in his face. Rubbing the spot where it had hit, he pouted. "Jeez, you throw hard."

And he became a victim of another Pokeball.

Green sighed in exasperation. "Will you two _shut _up? We have more important things to worry about now."

They both faced him and became silent, sending glares at each other. Silver shook his head and leaned against his Feraligator, looking over at the Jigglypuff and its owner. He limped over to the girl, running a black-gloved hand carefully through her hair. Everyone watched him as his namesake eyes narrowed in fury.

"Sis?"

The girl shifted on the Jigglypuff, looked up, and rubbed her eyes. "Sil? What time is it?" she opened her mouth in a yawn and stretched.

"About evening, you've been out for a bit, Blue. Do you...remember anything?"

Blue shook her head. "No, why...oh. Oh!" she glanced around and widened her eyes when she saw that their little group from before was leaderless. "W-What happened? Where's Brock?"

Silver sighed. "Someone took him and now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere and with no one to guide us."

"What about Brock's Pokemon, what happened to it?"

"It's still here," he gestured to the KO'ed Onix that sat curled into a ball. "Apparently Brock didn't get a chance to retrieve it."

Blue's namesake eyes brightened, and she clapped her hands together as she leaned on her pink Pokemon. "But don't you see, Sil, we can still use it! Brock must've traveled back and forth millions of times before on his Onix to the academy, so it _must _know the way to the academy by now!"

Gold found himself nodding with the explanation, and through the corner of his eyes saw Green shaking his head as well, amusement plastered onto the older boy's face. Silver smiled softly at Blue. However, Crystal seemed the only one to have seen the flaw in the plan.

"How are we going to get there though, on a fainted Pokemon?" she pointed out loudly as to gather everyone's attention.

Blue frowned at this, placing her chin on both of her hands. "I didn't think of that..." she had a disappointed look on her face.

However, it seemed fate was taking their side. Green slipped out a revive from a pocket in his jeans, and walked over to the Onix. Placing the diamond-shaped item to the rock-type's head, everyone watched in amazement as the Pokemon jerked to life, black eyes observing them quietly. It took a moment before the Onix realized its owner was missing. It turned its angry gaze onto the group of teens before them.

"Onix, I'm sorry to say that while you were knocked out, your owner was captured," the Onix swung it's head at the speaker, the girl with anti-gravity pigtails. "But we still need your help and I'm sure Brock would want to help us. We need you to take us to the Kanto knights academy."

At the mention of Brock, the Onix made a whining sound. Gold watched with narrowed eyes as the girl went up to it and cautiously patted its rock body with a hand. Her Meganium followed, eyeing the Onix with its golden eyes as it approached.

"I know you miss your owner, but _we_ need you now. Brock is gone without a trace, but we may be able to help him if you let us get to the academy first," her voice oozed confidence, but Gold could've sworn he heard a note of panic in her voice.

The Onix moaned once, shook its head, and lowered its body for her to get on. She did and waved to the others. "Okay, everyone can get on now!"

Silver returned his Feraligator and boarded the Pokemon, wincing a bit. Blue followed his example, climbing onto Onix with a determined look on her face. Gold grinned at them, slid off Explotaro, returned it, and then went onto Brock's Pokemon. The rock-type glanced at him nervously, before turning its attention to Green, who had yet to climb on.

The brunette narrowed his eyes and instead got on his Charizard. "I'll patrol the area," he muttered. "In case we get attacked again." He gestured to his Pokemon to take flight.

Blue rolled her eyes as Green flew away. "He's such a bore," she yawned.

Gold placed both arms on his head. "Whatever, he's going to miss a lot of excitement from mwah. After all, I'm so-ow! Can you stop doing that!" he yelled at the pigtailed girl in front of him as she "accidently" hit him with a crumpled piece of paper.

"You deserved that," was all she said.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Says the super serious gal."

"_SHUT UP!_"

Hours later, close to evening, after a long ride and a long nap, they had finally arrived at the academy. Gold stared at it in awe. It seemed like a mansion, probably about the size of two Groundons put together. Four buildings stood on a large patch of ground, each sporting brick walls. A tall gate surrounded the area, shining silver under the intense amount of sunlight that beamed down on it.

Kids their age littered the dirt roads, bags slung over their shoulders as they gossiped and chatted about recent things. No one seemed to take notice of the four riding on an Onix until they burst past the silver gate. Green followed overhead, landing alongside them as Brock's Pokemon lowered its head to let the four riding it off. Then, they had everyone's attention.

Gold beamed at the crowd they were attracting. "Hello everyone! Have you been waiting long to see me?"

The students just looked at him in confusion, although a few girls blushed at his words. Silver and Green glared at them with cold eyes, while Blue waved and blew a few kisses. The pigtailed girl from earlier looked away, a bit shy at the attention.

Suddenly, however, the crowd parted and revealed a red-headed girl. Beside her, the boy named Red. She shook her head at them, before noticing someone was missing. "Where's Brock?"

Green stepped forward after he returned his Charizard. "He had a little...problem on the way here and we ended up borrowing his Onix."

The newcomer gasped, placing both hands to her face with shock. "I-It couldn't be! Did you see who took him? Were they wearing black uniforms?"

Green raising an eyebrow while Gold stared at her curiously, how had she known that? However, before the golden-eyed boy could question her, Green nodded in response to her question. The red-head collapsed to her knees, much to the surprise of everyone in the area.

"W-Why s-so soon?" she exclaimed, shoulders shuddering. "The Raiders aren't supposed to a-attack when w-we're transferring students!"

"What do you mean?" Crystal asked softly, awkwardly scrambling over to her. Red just looked at the girl with a puzzled expression on his face.

She sniffed, rubbed her eyes, and stood up. "I'm sorry, it's just...last time this happened that person never returned. I just can't...," she looked away. "Nevermind, just...come with me to the headmaster's building."

"What about Onix, Misty?" Red said, glancing back at the Pokemon as it gave them a forlorn look.

Misty sighed and faced the rock-type. "I'm sorry Onix. We'll find Brock, I promise. But for now...can you go to the corral and wait until we're able to do something?"

It stared at her, pondering her words, before nodding and heading in the direction of a circular fence containing various types of Pokemon. Gold watched it leave, taking note of the way people parted for the passage of the rock-type.

Misty signaled for them to follow her. The six teens went after her as she led them on the concrete paths to a small, cube-like building. Gold held his hands on his head, glancing around as he noticed multiple knights gawking at him, mostly the females. He grinned in response, waving a hand at them. The girls swooned while the boys glared.

"What are you doing?" pigtailed girl hissed from behind him.

"Enjoying the attention, why, are you _jealous?_" he smirked at her when her cheeks puffed out in anger.

"Of course not, what do I have to be jealous of? You're just making a fool of yourself and I couldn't help but interrupt, that's all."

"Awww, you care for me," he smiled widely, placing an arm around her.

She pushed it away with a scowl as some of the girls glared at her. "I can't care for guys who are complete morons."

"Super Serious Gal, I'm hurt," Gold faked a look of pain at her, but it was clearly evident it had no effect on the girl as she frowned.

"Whatever," she sighed, and walked forward.

Gold watched her, eyes narrowed as she continued to ignore him. She was simply no fun. Instead, he focused his attention upon all the other candidates. Red seemed lost in thought, hands in pocket as he stared ahead. Green was relaxed and as always stoic. Blue and Silver walked side by side, chatting happily amongst themselves. Gold was shocked when he saw the red-headed boy give Blue a small smile. Around others, he always seemed so cold and distant.

"We're here," Misty murmured, gesturing to a square door.

Everyone walked inside, careful not to push as they entered.

Upon going inside, Gold was abruptly not impressed. The room was bare of any decorations, aside from a desk, chair and a painting of a man with oddly teal-colored hair grinning at them. The gray walls almost made the area feel claustrophobic. A few people from before were also stuck in the room. Gold recognized Straw-hat girl as she nervously shifted to the edges of the crowd. Misty seemed ignorant of the lack of space and instead turned her attention to a man sitting in front of them all.

Gold's first thoughts, upon laying eyes on the man, was that he was the twin to the man in the picture located above him. Both had teal hair in the same style, both showed off frilly, flamboyant outfits and both had that same confident smile on their faces. To put it simply, they were identical people.

The man spread out his arms as if welcoming them in. "Ah, the new candidates! I am Wallace from the Hoenn region, if any of you know where that is...Ah, nevermind, but welcome to my little home, I do hope you enjoy it," this brought up a few snickers from the crowd, "Yes, yes, do mock it. This's actually just my little area to do work and such. You might report back here if you do missions and such. Well, moving on, it's time for oaths!" he clapped his hands together as everyone groaned in protest.

Misty put her hands on her hips and faced them. "It's not that bad," she scowled, stepping over to Wallace. "It's quite simple, actually. Just copy everything he says.

Wallace smirked at her. "She's absolutely right, you know. Now, repeat after me. I will follow each and every rule of the Kanto knights, my loyalty never swaying."

Gold repeated the words boredly, almost in monotone. _What is the point in this?_ he asked himself.

"I shall never kill unless needed, I shall obey orders, and I will always try my best to defend my kingdom."

Again, the crowd of people echoed the same words. Red and Green had their attention drawn to the picture, both comparing it to Wallace. Straw-hat girl stuttered the oath, her hands playing with her straw hat. Super Serious Gal had her attention held on Wallace, almost never blinking as she repeated the words. Gold rolled his eyes at her. She was so _serious_.

"My alliances with others don't exist and I only serve the Kanto kingdom."

Silver and Blue were smirking, as they spoke, almost as if they were testing out the words. Three people wearing scarves recited the oath with an almost identical gleam in their eyes, although the girl had her eyes narrowed. Two people with dark brown hair were rapidly losing focus, eyes misting over and a dreamy look became plastered on their faces.

"With this oath, I pledge all loyalty to the knights and promise to protect those in need."

A girl with brown hair sticking out at both sides like long bangs sneered as she spoke the words, eyes glaring at the white-capped boy beside her.

Misty clapped her hands together. "Good job, candidates, you are now officially a part of the Kanto knights! Aren't you proud?"

Gold tried to prevent himself from shaking his head in response to her rhetorical question. Instead, he focused his attention to Wallace, who was getting out of his seat to address them yet again.

"Alright, alright, so you repeated your oaths and now that we're done with that, let's all introduce ourselves. I'm Wallace, the headmaster of this academy, but you knew that of course. You?" he pointed to the girl with the straw hat.

"M-Me?" she stuttered, before attempting to smooth her black shirt and brown apron-like thing **(A/N: I have no idea what it's called, XD)**.

"Yes, you," heads turned to watch the girl.

Straw-hat girl flinched under the attention. "A-Ah, I'm Amarillo D-Del Bosque Verde, but j-just called me Yellow," she sighed after she stopped speaking.

"I'm Sapphire Bell," the girl with bang-like hair said. She was wearing a blue bandanna, blue shirt and black shorts all while being barefoot.

"Ruby Jay!" a boy with a white cap, red shirt, and gray pants chimed.

"Diiiiaaa Jones," one of the two boys with scarves said with a yawn, adjusting his red hat and then wiping crumbs off his black shirt.

Super Serious Girl faced the crowd with a frown. "Crystal Lukehart."

"Gold Ashton, the most awesome person you'll ever meet!" Gold shouted, doing a fist pump in the air. Crystal glared at him in response to the outburst.

Red stepped forward, tipping his hat forward before placing both hands in his jacket pocket. "Red Dove," he grinned at the crowd.

"Pearl Thomas!" the second of the scarf trio shouted, silver eyes looking around at the crowd. He was wearing an orange-and-white shirt which seemed to go along with his blue pants (not that Gold cared).

The third of the trio regarded them all with a blank stare, hands absent-mindedly sliding across her black and pink dress. "Platina Berlitz."

"I AM BLACK DEYOUNG, THE BEST KNIGHT IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!" one of the boys shouted, hands cupped over his mouth. He was wearing a white and red hat, a blue jacket, black shirt and dark blue jeans.

A girl wearing a sleeveless black jacket, white shirt and jean shorts looked at Black like he was crazy before she introduced herself. "White Smith."

"Blue Rose, the one and only," Blue winked at the crowd, but seemed disappointed when no guy swooned over her. "You know you love me~" She twirled around in her black dress, ending in a curtsy.

Silver stepped forward, black-gloved hands interlocking with Blue's white-gloved ones. "Silver Lee," the red-head sighed.

That left one more person. Gold turned his head to Green and everyone followed his example, hoping to recieve Green's full name. The boy regarded them with emerald green eyes narrowed dangerously, seeming to hesitate.

"Tch, Green Oak."

Gasps were heard from the crowd, and even Gold's jaw dropped in shock. _Green _was the famous grandson of Professor Oak? Rumors had been spread around Gold's hometown, New Bark Town, that Professor Oak had had a grandson, but the spiky-haired boy had never thought they were true until he heard the words Green muttered.

The spiky-haired boy scowled. "Stop looking at me like that," he growled.

Blue giggled, hands put to her lips. "You're the grandson of the legendary Oak? Unlikely! You seem more like a Slowpoke, and that Charizard of yours? Please!"

Green glared at her, trying to shut her up, but that just caused the girl to collapse to the floor, her hands pounding on the ground in hysteria. Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes while everyone just watched, wondering what could possibly be so funny about Green being the grandson of Professor Oak.

Wallace watched them in amusement before speaking up again. "Alright, that's enough now. Misty, would you be so kind as to lead them to their rooms?"

"Rooms?" echoed Sapphire, seeming a bit nervous about the word.

"Of course. Now that you're a knight, you'll be staying here for a while, so it only makes sense to give you shelter. But I need to get back to work so...good bye!" he waved them away.

Misty sighed, and gestured to the door. "Follow me," the red-head left the building and Gold followed her.

"Man, I hope the rooms are nice and organized," Ruby muttered beside Gold, taking out a ball of yarn and a needle. The spiky black-haired boy eyed it.

"Why do you have that?" Gold asked him.

The boy glanced up. "For sewing my clothes, of course."

Gold took a couple of steps away from the boy. Receiving a "what-the-heck?" look from Ruby, he cleared his throat. "Why in the name of Lugia would you have _t-that?_" he pointed to the ball of yarn in exasperation.

People glanced in Ruby's directions, sending questioning looks to the white-capped boy as he began to stitch a line into another white cap he had taken out from a satchel (?). Sapphire, in particular, curled her lips up in disgust, muttering something about a "sissy boy" before walking away. Red glanced at the crimson-eyed boy in amusement.

Ruby merely sighed. "I knew this would happen."

**Dia's PoV**

Dia stretched out his arms and yawned. He had just finished his slice of bread after the whole group of newbie knights had left Wallace's building, and now crumbs littered his shirt. He swiped them away with a hand and instead glanced around at everyone around him. They all seemed tired from their trip to the Kanto Knights Academy, or K.K.A, as Dia liked to call it and had this kind of slow aura around them as they reluctantly followed Misty.

Personally, Dia wasn't really interested in any of the fellow knight candidates. Sure, they all seemed nice and friendly (with the exceptions of Sapphire, Green, and Silver), but the boy just couldn't find a way to connect with any one of them.

The boy yawned again, and continued walking on the dirt path, alongside the boy named Ruby and the girl named Crystal. However, the journey was soon cut short as Misty stopped in front of a large brick building with two statues of Lucario hovering at the entrance.

"Here's where you'll be sleeping and spending some of your free time in. It's called the Lucario dorm, obviously named after these Lucario statues. This building has fifty rooms here, each with a number.

"This's where I come in. I'll give each of you a card with a number on it, and from there you'll depart to that room. But it won't be just you, there will be one other person as well. Here, take these," she reached out to Yellow first, who nervously picked a card out from the deck spread in Misty's hands.

Red went next, carefully picking it and examining. Then Green went, and Platina, and Pearl, and Ruby, each staring at their number before stepping inside the Lucario-statue building in their excitement to find their rooms. Misty came over to him, and Dia picked a card. It read: Room 407.

Dia gave a curt nod to Misty and walked inside the dorm, glancing around at the hallway located within.

It was surprisingly more colorful than Dia had initially thought. Paintings of a man and his Lucario were placed on every wall, and a sky-blue background was pasted behind them, adding emphasize to the man's sea-green eyes.

At the left end of the hallway was a small place labeled as _Pokemon Cafe_. Dia felt his mouth water at the prospect of food and he would've dashed over there to get some, had he not noticed the sign underneath saying _Sorry, out of items to sell_. Feeling disappointed, the boy decided to try searching for his room.

Finding the certain number desired hanging over a brown door, he turned the golden knob and opened it.

The room inside was, in Dia's opinion, bland. Gray walls made up the perimeter, a brown door which led to the bathroom stood open, a painting of the man with his Lucario hung above one of two oak beds, and a desk lay across from the beds. In the corner, a fire lit up the room, blanketing everything in red and orange.

However, Dia's attention was soon taken away from the place when he noticed the blonde boy from earlier named Pearl.

The blonde boy glanced up and waved. "Hey! You're my room-mate, right?"

"Yeah, apparently," Dia said with a shrug.

"Great! Hey, are you good at acting?"

"Act...ing?" Dia felt confused by the word. It's not that he didn't understand it, it was just that he was puzzled by why the boy would ask him such a question.

"Yeah, acting. Ya' know, like doing jokes or such? Have you ever tried it before?"

"No," the black-haired boy admitted. "I'm not much for crowds."

Pearl playfully punched him on the shoulder. "Oh come on, try this with me. Speaking of Pokemon~"

"Um...Speaking of Pokemon..."

"The Kanto Knights sure are cool, with their heroic deeds and such."

"But where are their steeds?" Dia said, placing a hand thoughtfully on his chin.

"What makes you say that?" Pearl glanced up at him, urging the boy to go on.

"In all the legends, they say the knights rode on Ponytas to rescue fair maidens from starvation!"

"I think you mean they saved them from devastation," Pearl grinned and then clapped his hands together. "I know we're going to become best friends, buddy. Dia, was it?"

Dia nodded in confirmation, about to speak, when the sound of glass shattering was heard. He walked over to the door, which he had shut upon seeing Pearl, and opened it once again to peer into the hallway.

Two figures stood outside the door, one panting heavily while the other just backed away, glancing around for a place to escape. Dia recognized them from earlier. Ruby and Sapphire. The brown-haired girl picked up a nearby desk with inhuman strength, flinging it at the white-capped boy before her. Ruby dodged with swift speed, crimson eyes looking around in a panic.

A girl peeked her head out of one of the doors next to Dia, dark blue eyes narrowing at the two fighting people before her. "So undignified," she sniffed, sweeping a hand under her oddly-colored blue hair. "Why were they even invited in the first place?"

Before Dia could say anything, a girl with a straw hat popped her head out. Yellow, if Dia remembered correctly. "P-Platina, you shouldn't go outside when there could be s-something dangerous happening out there."

"Oh, relax, commoner. If anything happens to me my father will make sure to take care of them properly," Platina responded in a rather snobby tone, giving Sapphire and Ruby one last glance before ducking back into her room.

Yellow looked at Dia helplessly before following Platina. "T-That's not what I meant," she muttered.

Meanwhile, Sapphire was still throwing objects at Ruby. Multiple objects passed by Dia, shocking the boy as he contemplated Sapphire's strength. Desks, chairs, vases, lamps and even tables were thrown at the white-capped knight as he continued to evade her oncoming slaughter of attacks. Watching them made Dia feel almost dizzy.

"Get back here, you sissy!" snapped Sapphire as she threw one of the paintings at Ruby.

"Hey, careful!" the boy grabbed the picture just before it hit the ground and sighed in relief. "These paintings are important works of art, don't destroy them with your ruthless actions."

Seconds later, Red, Silver, Blue, and Green emerged from their separate rooms, each looking at the cause of the ruckus they had been hearing. Silver and Green narrowed their eyes at Sapphire, before turning around and re-entering their rooms, while the other two stayed out in the open, watching in amusement.

Pearl came to Dia's side, leaning against the frame of the door. His silver eyes took in the situation, and he looked sideways at his new room-mate. "What exactly are they fighting about?"

"Dunno."

"What's so harmful about calling you a barbarian?" Ruby muttered to the girl across him.

Sapphire adjusted her blue bandanna before throwing yet another desk at the poor boy's head. "It's rude to call someone you just met," she growled.

"But, you're also calling me a sissy boy, aren't you being hypocritical?" Ruby pointed out with a frown.

"I, uh, you, er...argh! Never mind, just stay away from me!" she shouted, walking into the room across Dia's and slamming the door shut.

"B-But wait...what where will I sleep, I'm in the same room as you...," Ruby sank to the floor, pouting.

Pearl sighed and walked back into the room. Dia followed his room-mate and closed the door promptly behind him.

"I never knew this was going to be so chaotic," Pearl muttered before lying down on his bed.

**Gold's PoV**

Gold entered his new home, room 411.

Inside, the room was alight with oranges and reds. Located in one corner, a bonfire crackled in a fireplace, flames licking the edges of the brick structure. Two beds lay in front of it, each covered with multiple blankets that were neatly organized.

A Braviary sat perched in the corner, wings folded by its side as it sat on a desk. Red eyes watched the spiky-haired boy carefully, taking note of the way he stepped closer to the beds. Its beak clacked open and it cawed gently. A figure under the blankets stirred and a boy poked his head out of the covers, yawning. It was Black.

"Oh, Gold right? I assume you being here means that you're my room-mate," the brown-haired boy murmured, blinking sleepily.

"Er, right…I guess," Gold walked over to the Braviary. "I've never seen this type of creature before, I assume you came from somewhere different?"

"I came from Nuvema Town, you?"

"New Bark Town."

"Hmm, isn't that in Johto?"

Gold nodded. "Yeah. Pretty quiet place."

Black yawned again and silence enveloped them. Gold took a place in front of the fireplace, appreciating it's warmth after noticing how windy and rainy it was outside. His hands held close to it, he wasn't prepared for Black's next words.

"So what did you do for your trial?"

Gold glanced over at him. "What?"

"What did you do for your trial?" Black repeated, slipping out of his bed and over to the bird perched on the desk. He scratched the Braviary under it's chin.

"Ah…that. It's a really long story."

"So? It's not like your trial took days on end."

"True…, fine I'll tell you."

Gold leaned against the back of Black's bed, closing his eyes to recount the tale of yesterday.

_The spiky-haired boy was standing by his room door, watching as his mother walked up the stairs. Her brown eyes were dark as she walked up, followed by some of Gold's Pokemon companions. Ataro the Aipom sat perched on the rail, tail swinging as it dug into an Pecha Berry. A Skipbloom bounced on the rail, spinning as it chirped happily. Noctowl flew above her, a white envelope in it's golden beak._

_Gold wondered what could possibly going on. Why was his mother looking at him with furious eyes? Not to mention, why were all of his friends inside the house, weren't they usually kept outside? Gold narrowed his eyes as he spotted Explotaro lurking at the bottom of the staircase, flames bursting from his neck. Red eyes glanced up at the boy with anxiety, almost as if the creature could sense something Gold couldn't._

_His mother stopped three-feet away from him, her gaze almost piercing through him. Noctowl hovered beside her and pushed the letter into Gold's hands. _

"_Open it," Gold's mother demanded._

_The spiky-haired boy slipped the triangular top of the envelope which was easy, since it was already ripped through. He picked up the contents and began to read._

Greetings Gold,

You have been chosen to attend as a fellow canidate for being a knight in the Kingdom of Kanto. As you already know, the Kanto region is led by the sacred Pokemon knights made up of trainers with special abilities. You qualify as one of these many trainers, and that is why we want to ask you to join us.

If you accept our offer, please wear the Starmie brooch we have provided you tomorrow. Go into the nearest town and wait. You will be provided a trial that will remain secret for now to test your abilities to see if you are ready to become a knight. If you refuse however...let's just say you'll be forgetting this very soon.

We look forward to seeing your results.

_The boy read the letter over again, as if to confirm what had been written. He glanced sideways at his mother. "Why do you want me to read this?"_

_"Because apparently someone thought it would be funny to prank me just to get away from me," Gold's mother snarled, staring pointedly at the boy._

_"I don't know what you're talking about," Gold frowned._

Gold paused his story, looking at his feet.

Black frowned. "What's wrong?"

"The next part of my story might get a little harsh...do you really want to hear it?"

The boy opposite of Gold raised an eyebrow. "It can't possibly be so bad."

"Then you might be surprised..."

_The next thing he knew, he was being slapped across the cheek. Pain slammed into that one area where she had touched and he visibly flinched, hand lightly touching the throbbing spot. Golden eyes glanced up wearily. Explotaro whined quietly, as if he was feeling his friend's pain. Aipom flicked it's tail and glanced away from Gold almost guiltily._

_"Well?" the woman growled. "Why did you do it? To hope that you could sneak away from me, you ungrateful brat?"_

_"I didn't do anything, mom," he muttered, only to earn a slap on the other cheek._

_"Don't _lie_," she snarled, turning around and stomping down the stairs, she paused on the last step and glanced back. "Oh, and Gold, don't even _think_ about dinner."_

Black frowned and Braviary cawed softly when the bird noticed he had stopped scratching the its' chin. The bird tugged at Black's sleeve.

"Man, that's messed up," Black murmured.

"Indeed."

The golden-eyed boy sighed, ruffling his jet black hair with a hand. He glanced at the Friend Ball he held in his palm, Explotaro gazing up at him from within it. The Pokemon's expression was clear, _I'm sorry, Gold._

He sighed, putting on a half-hearted grin. "It's okay, buddy."

_Gold watched her go, furious but also helpless. He had no ability to speak back, and instead he slipped into his room, followed by all of his friends. Explotaro nudged the door open, sliding inside. Ataro and Skipbloom soon entered, both looking sad. They knew this was a normal moment in the spiky-haired boys' life, and they knew that he was capable of dealing with it._

_Still, that didn't stop Gold from crying._

_The boy, normally known for his cocky attitude and arrogant, was actually _crying_. See-through tears dropped to the floor, splashing the ground with an barely audible sound. Explotaro curled around him, trying to comfort his friend, and Gold responded by just sliding his hand across the Typlosion's back, carefuly to avoid the red flames._

_His fists and teeth clenched, the boy tried to stop himself, but in the process just shook and began to sob more. Ataro offered him a Pecha berry, but was rejected by a wave of Gold's hands._

_Finally, the boy came to a halt, wiping away the tears before grabbing his backpack. Explotaro and Skipbloom looked up in surprise as the boy stuffed food (which he had stolen and hoarded), water, clothes and other miscellaneous items into the bag. Gold refused to meet their gazes as he stood up and went to the window._

"_Ty?" Explotaro murmured._

_The boy looked at him, eyes swimming in sorrow. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "But I can't take it here anymore. I may not have sent that letter mom showed me, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to refuse it."_

_Gold slipped out the window, clutching his backpack tightly as he landed on a thick branch of an oak tree. Balancing on it, the boy walked towards the trunk, grabbed it, and slid down the tree. Moments later, his feet touched the ground. Namesake eyes glancing around, he tiptoed to the little fence that surrounded his home._

_Instantly, Pokemon flooded over to him, nuzzling and rubbing against his legs in welcome. A Yanma hovered above his head, wings flapping out of existence. Sentrets curled around his feet, mewling softly for attention while Hoppip and Skipbloom skipped around him. A group of Wooper bounced around, waving their purple antenna in a happy manner. None of them seemed to sense the sorrow surrounding the boy._

_Gold greeted each of them with a wave and half-hearted smile. He briefly remembered them doing this to him each and every time he walked out of his house…ever since he was five years old. The boy recalled playing with the group every time since he wandered out into the forest behind his house and helped Ataro. The little Aipom had been injured upon stumbling on it, and Gold had nursed it back to health. The forest Pokemon, having seen this, grew attached to Gold and eventually ended up as his friends._

_Now, he almost felt regretful as he walked up to the gate, shushing the Pokemon. They complied, looking up in confusion as to why he would want them quiet. The boy reached the entrance to the fence and he slowly opened it, carefully moving it so it wouldn't creak with age._

"_Typlo!"_

"_Aipom!" _

_Explotaro and Ataro were rushing towards him, red and black eyes focused eagerly upon him. They both wore identical faces of determination as they came to rest in front of him. Explotaro's back burst into flame while Aipom swung back and forth while balancing on its tail._

_Gold looked at each of them. "Do you want to...come with me?"_

_They nodded and the boy smiled in return. He bent down to pat Ataro on the head. "Okay, but only if you agree to come inside these Pokeballs, okay?" he picked up two Friend Balls that he had stashed in his bag and pointed them at the two Pokemon._

_Instantly, Ataro and Explotaro were absorbed into the round objects. The Friend Balls shook once and then twice, and another time before they clicked and signaled that the Pokemon had been caught. Gold glanced at them once before slipping them into his backpack._

_"Thanks...guys."_

"The details are kind of blurry after that," Gold yawned, placing a hand to his mouth. "But I know I eventually reached Cherrygrove City after that. And that's where my trial started."

"What happened exactly?" Black asked, eyes half closed as sleep threatened to overcome him.

"Ah...that, well let's just say it's very confusing."

_Gold looked at the city before him._

_Cherrygrove City had always been known for the peaceful yet dull aura it carried. Even Gold felt bored staring at it as he walked into the dirt streets. Both tourists and civilians occupied the area, their Pokemon strolling happily beside them. The spiky-haired boy spotted a Miltank bouncing alongside a pink-haired girl as she frolicked around the place._

_Someone stepped along behind him. "Package for you," it rasped._

_Gold spun around to meet a stranger covered in a brown robe. The person smirked underneath and shoved a yellow Pokemon egg his arms. The boy glanced up wearily at him. "I'm sure you're mistaken, sir."_

_Shaking his head, the stranger scowled. "It's a part of the trials, alright boy? Take it and keep it. Your job is to take it to the pink-haired girl over there," he gestured to the lady with a Miltank. "Don't drop the egg. Oh, and a warning, it might be handy to have Pokemon with you. You never know when there's going to be a battle."_

_"Um...okay?" Gold watched as the guy called out a Skarmory and took off._

_The boy stared at the egg in his hands, contemplating whether he should ditch it or not. _I'm not that heartless_, he scowled to himself, clutching the yellow object close to his chest. He began to make his way towards the pink-haired girl, following the man's instructions, when a boy his age leaped out._

_"Hey brat, you can't just walk by me idly!"_

_Gold glanced sideways at him. The boy was wearing a straw hat, a green t-shirt, blue shorts and held a bug net in his hands. A Fast Ball spun on the top of one of his hands._

_"Are you challenging me to a battle?"_

_"Heck, yes!" the boy growled, throwing the Apricorn Ball. "Beedrill!"_

_"Explotaro!"_

_Both trainers sent out their Pokemon, beams of light spreading out from their Poke Balls and attracting attention from the crowd of people. They all eagerly gathered around to see what was going on._

_Gold's Typlosion faced Bug Boy's Beedrill, ruby red eyes glaring as flames erupted from the fire-type's back._

_"Fire Blast!" Gold commanded._

_"Dodge it then U-Turn!"_

_Explotaro launched a full-out Fire Blast at the bug-type, only to look frustrated as the Beedrill dodged. Looking triumphant, the yellow bee slammed into Gold's Pokemon before being returned to its Fast Ball._

_"Butterfree, use Sleep Powder!"_

_A purple bug with red eyes and white wings emerged, acting swiftly and spreading around a green powder. Typlosion looked at it fearfully as the substance came closer._

_"Flamethrower, quickly!"_

_Fire licked at the bug-type, quickly knocking it out just as the Sleep Powder hit. Explotaro stumbled, blinked once, and then collapsed onto the ground. Gold gritted his teeth together and returned Explotaro._

_"Ataro!"_

_"Beedrill!" Bug Boy called, throwing on the bee from before._

_Gold's Aipom glanced wearily at it's opponent, black eyes narrowed._

_"Focus Blast!"_

_"Poison Sting!"_

_Both attacks of brown and purple collided, sending a shower of multi-colored sparks to the ground. Gold watched in awe as the attacks stopped, letting the shower of colors spread over the crowd. Bug boy just scowled, his brown eyes sweeping over the field as he waited for the results of the battle._

_Beedrill fell first. The yellow bug collapsed to the ground, spirals swirling in its eyes as its humming came to a stop. Gold did a fist-pump, caught up in the moment, before coming to Ataro's side. The purple monkey swayed, and then fell on his belly, breathing heavily. Gold pulled out an Oran Berry and fed it to Ataro. He ate it and then wobbled to his feet._

_"Good job buddy," Gold murmured, patting Ataro on the head. The purple monkey cooed in response._

_Bug Boy scowled and then retreated. "Five more in ten minutes!" he called before disappearing._

_Gold watched him go, puzzled by the words, before searching for the pink-haired girl. He spotted her on the beach now, Miltank at her side. Holding the egg tight, he began to pursue her._

_A woman in a plain pink dress appoached him, narrowing her eyes. "Do battle with me," she said with a growl._

_She sent out a Vileplume and Gold sent out Explotaro. Upon touching the ground, the Typlosion snapped awake, shaking away from its previous condition._

_The battle went quickly. A couple of Flamethrowers and the over-sized flower was gone. The lady sent out another Vileplume which soon met its end, and the woman growled. She returned her Pokemon and walked off. "Four more, nine minutes," she murmured ominously._

_Gold continued battling people. The next victim of his Pokemon was a little girl with a Ampharos. Explotaro took came of it with a Fireblast and they were on their way. The egg in Gold's hands seemed to shake at each battle, excitement building in the resident from within._

_The spiky-haired boy kept facing more and more opponents. A psychic, another bug boy, a man, each counting down as he beat them. Finally, after finishing off all the challengers, he made it to the pink-haired girl. A crowd of people flocked around them, eagerly watching Gold as he began to talk to the girl._

_"Miss," he said, namesake eyes staring at her._

_She glanced sideways at him. "Oh, you're the challenger? Hmm, the academy picked a puny one."_

_"What do you mean puny?" Gold challenged, eyes narrowing._

_She waved a hand and glanced at the egg. Examining it, she shook her head and looked at Miltank. "It needs one more battle, right?"_

_"Miiil," the cow murmured in agreement. _

_"Alright then. Gold, was it? Mine challenging me to a battle?"_

_"What is this, some sort of battle competition? Are you like the final boss or something because this's really getting annoying," Gold's egg shook as if agreeing with his irritated words._

_"Tsk, whatever. My name is Whitney, by the way."_

_"Okay...not like I care..."_

_"You should!" she pouted, stomping a foot on the ground. "Choose your Pokemon!" The crowd of people roared in approval, shouting for Gold to fight._

_Gold rolled his eyes at her. "Ataro!"_

_"Miltank!"_

_Ataro burst from his Friend Ball, spinning in a circle before facing his opponent and raising a hand. Miltank yawned, waving a leg around absent-mindedly._

_"Rollout!"_

_"Focus Blast!" _

_Ataro shot a brown beam of power at the rival Pokemon just before getting run over by the pink cow. A cry of pain and the Pokemon shifted to his feet, glaring at Miltank with black eyes. Both Pokemon were panting now, Ataro tired from previous battles and the damage taken earlier, while Miltank suffered from the recent attack._

_"Good job," Whitney said. "But you'll have to do better!"_

_"I can and will, Swift then Double Team, Ataro!"_

_"Keep on going with Rollout!"_

_Ataro flung star-shaped objects at Whitney's Pokemon as it rolled towards him. The monkey then created multiple copies of himself, spinning in a circle so no one could tell where he was._

_Miltank stopped it's attack abruptly, looking around in confusion. Whitney gritted her teeth. "Recover."_

_"Focus Blast!" Gold cried out quickly, just as the cow became covered in white light._

_Ataro jumped into action, shooting the beam of light, and landing on the ground. Smoke rose, covering evertything, and everyone held their breath as they waited. As it cleared, the results were clear. Gold had won._

_Miltank was on its back, black spirals in its eyes as it tottered back and forth slowly. Ataro was on his knees, panting, but the purple Pokemon had a proud gleam in its eyes._

_"Congrats," Whitney said._

_Gold looked up at her, about to comment on the battle, when the egg in his hands shook and broke open. From inside, a small creature emerged. Ears appeared first, shaped much like a yellow diamond and edged in black, the Pokemon reminded Gold of a Pikachu._

_"Pi?" it said, glancing up._

_Black eyes looked up at Gold with determination burning inside them. As pieces of eggshell littered the floor, the Pikachu-like Pokemon smiled and beamed. Blowing at the tuft of hair on its forehead, the Pokemon buried itself into his chest._

_"W-What in the world of Johto..."_

_"It's a Pichu!" Whitney squealed, bending down to pet it. The Pichu growled at her touch. Whitney looked at Gold. "This means you passed your test!"_

_The spiky-haired boy cocked his head at her. "What?"_

_"Oh, seriously!" she put her hands on her hips. "Did you not read your letter?"_

_He shrugged. "Sort of..."_

_"Argh! Well, whatever, now that I know you passed, we can go to our destination!" _

_Whitney snatched his wrist, sent out a Pidgeot and dragged him on it. She returned her Miltank while Ataro climbed onto Gold's shoulder, tail swinging happily. Pichu struggled in Gold's arms, giving the purple monkey a haughty glare of jealousy._

_The pink-haired girl stared at her Pidgeot and beamed. "Take us to the castle, friend.."_

_Pidgeot cooed, taking flight and rising into the sky. Whitney began to pet it, eyes closing._

_Gold scowled at her. "Okay, so first I battle you and a whole bunch of trainers, hatch a Pichu, get told I passed some sort of test, and now I'm being taken to the middle of who-knows-where. What is _wrong_ with you people?"_

_Whitney rolled her eyes. "It's not like we're commiting a crime. I don't see what you're so hyped about."_

_"Shut up, pink-hair."_

_"Well it's better than unnaturally spiky hair."_

_Gold gritted his teeth and looked into the sky, further ignoring any comments from the girl beside him. _I hope I did the right thing, _then he scowled. _Of course, I am.

_Hours later, they arrived at an old castle. Whitney, impatient to put him inside, shoved him into the long hallway and then into the room._

_Upon entering, he was met with the shapes of many people sitting on chairs. Looking back now, Gold could recall all of their names. He saw Black and White by eachother, talking about agencies or something. Crystal and Green were there as well, reading books. Silver sat on a chair beside them, seemingly looking around in boredom. The scarved trio sat side-by-side, each spacing off while their neighbors, Ruby and Sapphire, focused on the room around them._

_Gold grinned, waving a hand. "Hiya people!"_

_They all turned to him, curiousity gleaming in each individual's eyes. Apparently, they were new too, Gold could tell by the way each person ticked with anxiety, with the exception of the spiky-haired brunette and red-headed boy. Whitney nodded in approval at him before slipping off, Pidgeot trailing behind her._

_Gold stared around at all the other people as he took a seat and grinned. He had left his old life behind...but maybe it was time for him to start a new one._

Silence filled the room. Gold glanced over at Black, only to find the boy knocked out. He smiled and glanced over at Explotaro. The Typlosion was asleep as well, eyes closed and snoring lightly. Braviary, however, was still awake, eyes half closed as he watched the spiky-haired boy get up to turn off the fire and slip into the bed beside Black's.

He put a finger to his lips. "Shh," Gold said to the Braviary, before shutting his eyes and going to sleep.

**Oh my gosh, that was so long and that's not even HALF the damn chapter. Ugh. I was going to finish it up and then post it, but seeing as this is already about 7,000 words I figured I'd stop at Gold's flashback and split the chapter into two.**

**I can't write from Gold's PoV. Or Dia's. There's just something about them...**

**Oh and it's Yellow's birthday today! I should probably do a one-shot or something for her...but I wouldn't know what to do D':**

**Anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I appreciate everyone's opinions on this story, since I'm not quite sure whether it's good or not.**

**-Fluttersong**


	4. Chapter 4 - Sparring Practice

**Welcome back to another chapter of Pokespecial Knights!**

**I wish I had gotten this out sooner, but school is**_** super **_**annoying. We have a three to four minute speech that's going on in one of my classes, which sucks to be completely honest. I have stage fright and up in front of people I barely know, so this's going to be fun...Then there's my math and science tests. D: At least we don't have homework**

**Moving on, we have a new chapter, hooray! This one contains a slight bit of Special Shipping and a tiny bit of Mangaquest. Oh, and there's also some Frantic Shipping moments...or rather, fights :D I wish I could just skip to the ships right away but sadly I can't...**

**Oh and responses to reviews (which I should really start doing now):**

**JBEMT-yeah, I know that, but it's so hard not to unless I'm actually doing her PoV, oh well...**

**Daownlyone-Thanks! And yeah, it was dark, but this story is dark anyways, atleast for what I have planned. Oh, and you'll love the weapon I gave Gold...hehe :D**

**Anyways Enjoy!**

**Chapter 4 – Sparring Practice and History Stories**

**Red's PoV**

The first thing he felt in the morning was a headache. It felt like he had slammed his head into a desk. Hard. The insane buzzing that accompanied the pain was of no help either. Glancing up from his bed, he noticed Green, his room-mate, was also having trouble, hands rubbing against the top of his head.

"What's happening?" Red asked, just as another wave hit him.

Green didn't reply, eyes focused upon the floor. Swaying slightly back and forth, the spiky-haired brunette made his way to the front door. Red followed, stumbling painfully as his vision blurred.

That was when he heard the voice.

_Wake up everyone. Time to train for your lives. Oh, and welcome newbies._

It was soft yet it still caused pain to radiate in Red's head. Hand drifting across spiky black hair, he was glad when the suffering had come to an end, leaving his body. Looking at Green, he could tell that the boy was also now pain-free and a question formed in his mind as he opened the door to their room.

"So where do we go?"

Green shrugged and pointed to the crowd of people spilling out from the rooms. Red spotted Yellow and the girl named Blue among them, both being dragged by the multitude of people. The boy thought about rescuing them for a second, but decided not to after a crowd of girls waved at him, some blowing kisses.

Green scowled, his face a mask of indifference as he shoved his hands into his pockets and followed the crowd. Red pursued him, not wanting to suffer alone. Ruby met up with them, a ball of yawn in his hands, while Gold went on Red's right side, grinning mockingly.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked them, his crimson eyes narrowed as he shoved his needle between two differently colored strings.

Gold prodded the boy with an elbow. "Somethin' about training, I think. Did you hear that voice, it was_ creepy_, almost like it was in my head!"

"That's because it was," a voice said ominously.

The four boys spun around to see Crystal behind them, her hands tugging at her white cap. She had an almost emotionless look to her face, eyes blank as she stared at Red, Green, Gold, and Ruby.

"That's impossible!" Gold snorted, waving a hand at her.

"No it's not. It's called _telepathy_, smart one," her eyes narrowed, and a hint of anger crossed her face.

"Sure, and how does a Super Serious Gal like you know anything?"

"Because I checked into the academy before I joined. It wouldn't be a good idea to head into somewhere without knowing anything about it, after all."

"Jeez, who knew one person could be so s_erious_. Don't you enjoy yourself every once and awhile?"

"I study," Crystal muttered. "Does that count?"

He put an arm around her neck and grinned. The anti-gravity pigtailed girl stepped away, but to no avail as Gold mimicked her movement. A tint of red touched her face and she glanced away, looking quite embarresed. Red watched them in amusement before heading out the doors leading to the outside of the academy.

Upon exiting, he found that many other newbies had also been dragged along outside and into a large field of emerald-green grass, huddling in a massive group of students. The spiky-haired boy spotted Pearl and Dia sitting in the plants, laughing loudly about something. Platina stood beside them, expressionless as she watched everyone else group together. Sapphire, White and Black sat together, chattering excitedly as they wove their hands into the grass. Blue and Silver were on the outskirts of the crowd of students, eyes glowing with mischief (well, Blue's were, but Silver's was more of a hard glare).

Yellow was with Chuchu, hugging the mouse tightly as she gazed around. A fishing rod was also placed in one of her hands, an Apricorn Ball attached to the end of it instead of the normal hook. Her golden eyes scanned the area, but nothing seemed to interest her as she skipped around. Red wondered why the blonde would even be in the field, seeing as she was clearly more fitted in another area than fighting.

Then, again, why would _Ruby_ be here? Seeing the boy and his feminine ways, Red was surprised he would even fight at all. Still, the white-capped boy seemed oblivious to that fact, carefully knitting a sweater of blue and purple.

A man dressed in a camouflage jacket abruptly appeared in front of all of them, wearing black sunglasses, a black shirt, and gray pants with black shoes. His sudden appearance reminded Red of the teleportation technique he had heard about from a book, and Red guessed the man in front of them was Koga.

He was wrong.

"Welcome fellow members and newbies to the Kanto Knights Academy. I am Lt. Surge and I shall be your instructor for fighting and battling and don't expect me to be soft on you, maggots. For any newbies out there," he paused and his gaze rested on Red, "then know that you will especially have to adapt to our strict ways. Come here for a choice of weapon and good luck!"

Gold was one of the first to rush up there, beaming as he waited for the weapon of Lt. Surge's choice. It was a shield.

Red tried not to burst out laughing when he saw the expression on Gold's face. The black-haired boy looked crestfallen and angry about the choice, accepting it with a muttered "thank you" before sulking over in a corner of the school. Blue burst snickered at the weapon, wiping away tears at the hilarious scene before her. Silver just watched his sister with amusement, showing no other emotion as he glanced at the pouting Gold.

Sapphire and Black were next to get their weapons. Both getting bows and arrows, they broke off from the line of newbies and examined the objects carefully before Sapphire nocked an arrow and shot at random, making the area head towards Ruby. Red was about to call out when the boy side stepped and avoided the hit. Crimson eyes glanced over at his room-mate.

"Be careful, barbarian before you kill someone," he sighed before returning back to his knitting.

Sapphire puffed out her cheeks at this before crossing her arms and looking away. "I didn't mean to aim for ya. But perhaps your girly ways attract death more than ya know."

Ruby snorted at this and walked away from her, waving a hand in goodbye. "Yeah, yeah, sure. You better watch your step though, barbarian."

No later had he said this, did a kid with green hair stumble with a sword in his hands and almost hit the girl in the process. Sapphire leaped out of the way in time and shot a startled look at Ruby before bending down to meet the boy. "Uh, kid, are you alright?"

Red watched silently beside Green as the kid with the sword glanced up and scratched the back of his head timidly. "I'm alright but sorry," he muttered. "This thing is kind of heavy."

"I'm glad you're okay," Sapphire frowned before offering him a hand. He accepted it and shakily got to his feet. "My name's Sapphire."

"Wally," the green-haired boy murmured, placing his weapon into a brown sheathe.

"Glad to meet ya, Wally," Sapphire grinned amiably.

"Same to you," the boy smiled gently before breaking off into a fit of coughs. Red and Sapphire glanced at him in alarm.

"Are ya alright there, boy?"

Wally waved her away with one hand while covering his mouth with another. After a few seconds of the noise, he withdrew his hand and placed it on the hilt of his sword. "S-Sorry, I'm kind of sick so everyone once and awhile I'll start coughing. It's nothing."

Sapphire narrowed her eyes but nodded. "Okay, if you're sure...I'll take my leave."

He nodded and the bandanna girl walked away, glancing once behind her before examining her weapon. Red watched Wally with concern as he broke into another fit and was about to ask the boy what he could do when a shadow leaned over him. Green, who had been at his side, prodded him gently with his elbow.

"Red, look up," he hissed.

The boy reluctantly glanced up and was met with the dark gaze of Lt. Surge. In his hands, a sword and spear. "Take these," he growled, handing Red the sword and Green the spear.

Accepting it carefully along with a brown sheathe, Red stared at the weapon and observed it. The sword was plain, in terms of how it looked. A gray, polished blade stood at the top, about the height of a Wartortle and seemed to have no injuries done to it. The hilt was normal as well, the only difference was the two letters ingraved into it. K.K. Kanto Knights.

Looking over at Green, Red noticed the older boy was scowling. He seemed disappointed in his weapon, twirling it in a circle boredly as if he had no care for it. Red stepped out of the weapon's range and sheathed his sword, slipping over to Yellow's side as Lt. Surge called for them to gather again.

"Alright, like always, people with similar weapons shall fight together and learn to come up with skills for battling opponents. Keep in mind the techniques you learn will be used in the up-coming battle tournament," Red didn't like the sound of that, but he kept silent as Lt. Surge continued on. "For all the newbies among us, I suggest learning tips from your seniors, maggots. Now go and find your groups at once!"

A few people in the crowd groaned while a few muttered "sir", and they all separated into four groups. Red headed towards the one with swords, a hand placed on the hilt of his own as he approached. The spiky-haired boy noticed as he approached that Wally, Dia, Platina, and Pearl were among the crowd of swordsmen, each wearing different but confident expressions. As they waited for the last of their members to gather, a girl stepped forward and faced the newbies boldly.

The girl was wearing a mint colored shirt with gray pants. "I assume you're the newbies?" a couple of nods from the newest members. "Good. That means we can show you everything and watch in amusement when you fail epically."

Pearl's eyes widened in surprise at her words before quickly narrowing. "Don't underestimate us," he said evenly.

She snorted in disbelief. "You're newbies and newbies are always the ones who fall first. Oh, and I'm Lena, and I'm the leader of these here swordsmen."

Red disliked the way she carried herself and the way Lena swaggered with confidence. He didn't care if she was the leader, he didn't like her attitude. People who acted based on arrogant and rash descisions were the worst kind of people in his mind. Along with those who cheated, killed, and stole, of course.

Red could tell that the scarf three, felt the same way, by the identical look of disgust on their faces. Wally seemed okay with it, eyes blank as he watched Lena saunter over to a small fence and sat on top of it. The brown-haired girl smirked arrogantly. "Any questions before we start?"

Dia, who had remained silent before, spoke out. "Yeah, what are we training for?"

Lena gasped and murmurs of surprise burst out from the other swordsmen. Red didn't see what was so wrong with the question; it wasn't their fault if they were new to the academy.

The girl in front of them relaxed and then scowled. "We train to protect our citizens when they're in danger and, when in need, we use our skills against the Raiders. Don't tell me you've never heard of Raiders before either?" they shook their heads and the brunette sneered. "That's just so _sad_. Well, they're a group of rebels that plan to wipe us off this planet so they can take control of it and plunge us into a monarchy. But it's our job to keep them at bay."

"If they're such a problem, why don't we just get rid of them now?" Pearl muttered.

"Because their numbers far outmatch ours. Not to mention, their base is located in an unknown location so there's nothing we can do…," she paused and frowned. "But moving on. Are you ready, newbies?"

Platina nodded, her lips pursed. "Yes."

"Well then show me what you got."

As quick as an Ekans, she unsheathed her sword and pointed it at Red. The boy reacted upon instinct, grabbing his sword and swinging the blade against hers. With a loud _clang_ the blades throbbed upon impact, and Red nearly avoided being hit in the face by the hilt of Lena's sword.

"Watch it," he muttered, ducking again as she swung her weapon.

"In battle there's no such thing as mercy," she snapped back.

Red blocked another swing, and kicked at her legs. Unfortunately Lena jumped out of range and mimicked his movements, catching him off-guard. With a quick throw, the blade hit Lena's side (though he did that softly, he didn't want to hurt her) and she stumbled backwards, eyes wide.

"Seems like I've won," he grinned.

"I-Impossible!" she growled. "You cheated!"

"No he didn't, we were all watching," Pearl pointed out.

Dia and Platina nodded in agreement to Pearl's words. Wally merely stayed quiet, his hand still on his sword's hilt while the other swordsmen sighed, clearly not wanting to take sides.

Lena scrambled to feet, glaring at Red before sheathing his sword. Crimson eyes glancing wearily at the girl, he backed away and waited for further instructions. Lena narrowed her eyes and turned to the more advanced swordsmen. "Pair up and practice moves," she ordered. "I'll take care of the newbies."

The knights took partners and began to practice sparring with each other. The sound of metal scraping against metal was heard clanging as they fought, and Red almost envied the confidence they carried in each and every step. He was even surprised when he spotted Wally among the crowd, swinging his sword and matching the blow of his opponent.

Lena glanced at them and put her hands on her hips, sneering. "Since you're all new, it wouldn't hurt to test your skills in the newest competition. How about a bet? If you manage to survive through the battle tournament then I'll welcome you fully into our group."

Pearl scowled at this, but didn't question her words as he held his sword tightly. Dia and Platina were silent as well, neither complaining. Glancing around at his team-mates, he noticed the confident looks they were giving him and he held out a hand to Lena. "Fine, we accept."

She shook it. "Good, it'll be fun watching you suffer at the hands of others."

"We'll see about that."

After many rounds of practicing, about three hours, the sparring matches came to an end. Red was glad when Lt. Surge called out to stop them because it was getting boring watching constant blows and blocks from the more advanced knights when they themselves were doing nothing.

"Everyone done now?" Lt. Surge growled. "Good. Now here's the announcement everyone's been waiting for. The time for our annual battle competition is soon coming and _everyone_ will be pitted against each other in a trial for survival. This time, the teams will be split between newbies and seniors. All people who have joined us in the last two years will fight against those who have been here for three years or more and trust me, it'll be an _exciting _development."

Red could tell a lot of people didn't like the idea of fighting older and more experienced people. Blue, Black and Ruby were all pouting in disappointment while the rest of the newcomers simply stared at their leader in disbelief. Clearly they hadn't expected to be fighting against their senior knights.

Someone among the crowd raised a hand. Everyone turned to it and over the heads of many people, Red could make out the person as Gold.

"Hey, teacher person, if we're going to fight something shouldn't I have a weapon and not a damn _shield_!" he shouted.

Lt. Surge shook his head and sighed. "I gave you each a weapon for a reason so no, you're not getting a weapon change anytime soon."

This resulted in an angry scowl from the black-haired boy. Muttering something under his breath, the boy glared at the shield in his hands and said something rather loudly about "being cursed for life". Crystal shot an Apricorn Ball in his face at this comment and then looking away from the startled looks of people like she had done nothing wrong.

"Moving on, I would suggest that everyone practice their moves in anticipation for what they will be doing. It might also be helpful for me to say that you should practice with your soon to-be team-mates. Now go, it's time for you to learn more about the knights."

Red stared at him confused for a few seconds before the sound of a bell ringing was heard. He flinched at the sudden and loud sound, looking around for the source. There upon the top of the academy, on the middle building, was a large brass bell surrounded in a light red aura. An Umbreon stood beside it, merely a shadow as crimson eyes flashed in the darkness of the bell.

All the students headed for the door, but all the newcomers hung back out of confusion. They had no idea where to go now, and besides, Lt. Surge was staring at them coldly, almost like he expected them to run for their lives or something.

The man handed them out individual papers. Red accepted one, giving the knight a puzzled glance, before reading what was on it. The words, written in cursive lettering, said: Red Dove, Room 111.

"Uh…," he glanced at it and then over to Ruby, who had approached him and was no longer knitting. "What do we do with these?"

"Go to the rooms listed," the white-capped boy shrugged before walking off.

Red followed him into the building, glancing around at the different rooms for his room number.

When he finally arrived, Red was surprised there was almost no one he knew in the classroom. With the exceptions of Green, Blue, and Yellow, there wasn't a person he recognized. The woman inside, who wore a puffy purple boa, a black jacket, red shirt, and black pants, glanced up from whatever she was writing and stared at him.

"_And so, the boy with the red and white cap walks into the room, confusion etched onto his face. Red eyes reflecting his name, the boy glances at his teacher. It is clear there is more to him than we know, and yet here he stands,_" she clapped her hands together and beamed. "Beautiful, is it not? That poem describes your entrance perfectly!"

"Um…okay?"

The lady sighed and placed two hands on her cheeks. "Ah, I'm such a genius! My name's Shauntal, by the way!"

"…."

Shauntal rolled her eyes and pointed to a seat beside the blonde known as Yellow. Red went over to it and saw down, a bit reluctant to be close to the girl. It wasn't that he disliked her or whatever, it was just that there was something about her that made him want to keep away from her, but not in a bad way of course. She just reminded him of someone from long ago…someone he'd rather not think about again.

The teacher rose out of her seat and clapped her hands together. "Okay class as you already know we have four newbies with us today. Be sure to welcome them properly!"

A few reluctant mutterings of "hey" went up among the students but Red noticed they were more forced and laced with fake joy then he would've expected. _The academy must get new students every once and awhile_, Red mused. _Or else everyone would be jumping and asking questions about our arrival._

Blue, got out of her seat and bowed mockingly, snickering to herself. "I feel so loved! Thank you all for awaiting for my arrival!"

Many of the knights stared at her in disbelief. The girls sneered but the boys merely blinked, amused by her actions. Green glanced over at her and scowled. "Annoying woman," he muttered.

She glared in response but held her tongue as Shauntal got out of her seat, tapping a feather pen on a cream-colored letter. Taking her seat, Blue glanced out the window provided beside her, looking quite bored as the lady spun around and then adjusted her glasses.

"Ah, class, today we're all going to repeat the lesson of the history of this academy."

"Psh, I thought we were going to this academy to fight, not to learn about some boring thing such as history. This isn't school."

Green shook his head at her, narrowing emerald eyes but saying nothing as he leaned on his chair. _He's so stoic, _Red thought with envy. _How calm can he get?_

Yellow, who had still remained quiet since Red had entered the room, looked at the spiky-haired boy. Red felt her gaze burn into him, and he wondered what she possibly could be thinking at that moment. However he had little time to wonder as Shauntal jumped back into action, ignoring Blue's comment.

"Oh and before we begin our lesson I have to tell you that we have a little capturing contest coming up as well! It's this Thursday and for you newbies, it's just a monthly event that tests the skills of our knights in the field when they're in trouble and have no Pokemon to aid them," she spun around and beamed. "Of course, I expect you all to do well."

The students exchanged anxious looks with each other, their eyes reflecting their worries at the mention of this piece of news. Red wondered what could possibly be so bad about this test: it couldn't possibly be as bad as Lt. Surge's battle competition…right? Breathing deeply, the boy continued to listen to his teacher or whatever she was.

"Alright, alright, I know you're all anxious with that, but you have some time to practice your skills so I expect you all to do well!" she paused and tapped her chin with a finger. "Now, moving on, we _must_ get onto our history lesson!"

More groans went up around the room and a lot of the students leaned back in their chairs, some doodling on randomly brought out pieces of paper.

"As most of you should know, this academy was created by Sir Aaron, an aura-user who only wanted to create peace among his fellow citizens and help people in need. So, in an effort to create an organization, he founded the Kanto Knights Academy. Along with a few other people, fellow friends, he turned fellow students like you into proud soldiers who banned together and protected the people of Kanto.

"Soon, their efforts spread and they protected even more of the known regions. Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova…and one other region that I can't quite remember…hmm, well, anyways the knights fought against evil demons and monsters unknown to humankind, saving many from ruins and devastation!"

Everyone sweatdropped at her exaggeration but they all seemed intrigued with the story none the less. Red found it fascinating how one second, everyone was complaining and the next, they were listening with open ears, eyes gleaming with curiosity. Clearly Shauntal was a talented teacher to be able to manipulate her students into listening.

"But for every story there of course must be an antagonist! Riley, son of Sir Aaron, was envious of his father's fame and plotted to overtake him. So, being the little traitor he was, he and his Pokemon raised an army of rebels and fought against the kingdom. Pokemon and people alike were forced into war and blood was shed.

"The war lasted three years and only ended when Sir Aaron reluctantly took the life of his own son. However the group of rebels, nicknaming themselves the Raiders, fled and went into hiding, plotting their revenge. To this day, they still lurk in hiding, waiting to strike..." Shauntal ended on an ominous note, taking in her student's hungry gazes for more with a grin. "So, how did you like that?"

A few whispers of awe rose up and Red felt amazed at the woman's amazing skills with telling tales. He, too, was left on edge, hungering for more of the story. _So that's what the Raiders are..._Red mused. _A band of revenge-hungry ruffians. _

Red paused for a moment and then pondered something with narrowed eyes. _If the Raiders went into hiding, then why would they launch an attack in broad day-light? Wouldn't that give them away? And why take Brock and not the newbie students?_ So many unanswered questions drifted through his head, but he shook them off as the class went on, finding himself intrigued by Shauntal's way of telling history.

_Ring!_

The whole class burst out of their seats as the bell tolled, including Red. The white-and-red capped boy grinned in relief, having grown a bit sleepily, and he stretched a bit before following the crowd. Shauntal was waving them good-bye, saying that they were free to do whatever now that the classes were over with.

Upon exiting, Red was met with the sight of many Pokemon. A lot of students had released their friends in their excitement, each practicing with the creatures as they battled others or sparred. Red smiled as he spotted a girl with her Clefairy, blocking random shots of a Water Gun attack as it used Metronome.

He continued walking down the hall, spotting more and more knights with their Pokemon. It seemed that as soon as break began, people would automatically do whatever they felt like. Red took a one of his two Apricorn Balls from under his coat (because apparently he couldn't have more than two Pokemon in the school) and released Pika from his prison.

The Pikachu did a fist-pump and climbed onto Red's shoulder, red cheeks sparking. He seemed not to care that they were in an unfamiliar territory and instead he looked eager to challenge every Pokemon in the area to a battle.

Red scowled. "We're not here to train."

"Pika?" the Pikachu cocked his head.

"I don't want to start fights we don't need," he explained, patting it on the head.

"Pi...," the Pikachu narrowed his eyes.

Red scratched under the Pokemon's head and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry buddy, just the way things work."

Pika looked away, nose in the air. His tail twitched rapidly.

"He says that that's unfair," a voice murmured. "After all, this is an academy to train in, right?"

Red spun around to see Yellow staring up at him, her Pikachu perched upon her shoulder. He tried to grin at her but it came out as more of a frown. They stayed silent for a bit, glancing at eachother, before a certain brunette burst between them, squealing rather loudly.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" Blue kept squealing in her high-pitched voice at a fast rate. "I can just feel it, the chemistry between you two! You two look like lovers or something!"

Red blinked in surprise at this, and one glance over at Yellow and, to his shock, he noticed the girl blushing as she quickly looked away. Wondering why she would act so shy at this, he shifted his gaze to Blue. "What do you mean?"

The brunette blinked. "Isn't it obvious?" she leaned close to Red. "She. Likes. You."

The spiky-haired boy stumbled backwards and snuck another look at Yellow. She stared back curiously before turning around and walking away. Chuchu glanced behind her, ears twitching before she, too, looked away. Red glared at Blue. "I think there's a flaw in your proposal," he said flatly. "We just met two days ago, there's no way in Kanto that she could like me that quickly."

"Ever heard of love at first sight, genius?" she asked, twirling a finger through her hair.

"Of course, everyone has. Doesn't mean she likes me at all."

Blue sighed, hands on hips. "Puh-lease! I know romance when I see it and that girl likes you."

Narrowing crimson eyes, he scowled and turned away. "What do you know about love?" he muttered angrily before he made his way to his room, entered, and slammed it shut.

Still, that didn't keep those memories flashing once again through his mind. A blur of orange, cream and black, a woman's scream, and the eyes of a stranger burning into his his...

Yellow's PoV

Yellow went into her room and shut the door quietly. Blue's words still echoed in her head as she walked over to her bed and fell upon it, and with no doubt at all, her Pokemon could tell she was troubled by something. Chuchu leaped off her shoulder before impact, licking her paw nonchalantly.

_Why are you so flustered over one girl's silly words?_ Chuchu asked, having taken notice of the embarresed look on her owner's face.

"I'm not flustered...," she scowled.

_Uh-huh and I'm a Mew. But...tell me, do you know Red? _

The blonde glanced at her Pokemon in surprise. "What do you mean?"

_I mean what I said, _she sniffed. _There's something familiar about him, isn't there?_

Yellow frowned, and placed her head in-between her legs, hands hugging them as green eyes narrowed. She unclipped her ponytail and it fell to her shoulders, showering her in golden threads of hair.

Then, she began to think. Chuchu was right, there _was_ something familiar about Red, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Mind wandering, she pondered the possibilities of why she might know him.

But, of course, while she was deep in thought, an alarm just had to go off and almost give her a heart attack.

_ATTACK! ATTACK! WARNING! WARNING!_

All traces of memory gone, she leaped to the door and cautiously peaked outside to see what was going on...

**Oh and did I mention a few uses of OC's will be used? Yep, Lena's an OC of mind. A stuck-up, overconfident one, that is.**

**Anyways, this next chapter will be interesting...we'll have a bit of action going on, not much compared to later but still :D**

**Also thank you to everyone reading and reviewing this!**

**-Fluttersong**


	5. Chapter 5-Voices Galore, Oh My

**Finally finished the next chapter! I swear, I hate fighting scenes...This chappie has a bit of OldRival and Mangaquest, as well as some important new characters so it was sorta fun to write.**

**Daownlyone: I knew you'd love that, XD**

**JBEMT: I'll do my best to introduce them, but that might not be till a little later...**

**Remepie: Thanks :D**

**Shea Yuu: Thanks as well~**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 5 - Voices Galore, Oh My**

Green's PoV

Green was practicing with his spear in his room when he heard the alarm.

It was loud and the way it made his head hurt reminded him of earlier that morning with the voice, only this time it was worse. The mental noise seemed to pierce through his skull, and it took all he had to stumble to the door and open it.

Naturally, he sent out his Pokemon to help him out. Appearing in a burst of white light, a Rhydon appeared, pounding its hands upon its chest. However, this action soon pulled to a halt as the screeching noise grew louder, and it clutched its head in agony.

"Rhy!" it hissed, glaring accusingly at Green.

The spiky-haired brunette gritted his teeth. "Sorry boy," he muttered, taking painful steps towards the end of the long hallway.

It was at that moment that he heard the voice. Much like the soft and melodic voice he had earlier, the only difference was the high-pitched wail added in.

_ATTACK! ATTACK! WARNING! WARNING!_

Taken aback, Green stumbled to the ground, only to bump into someone on the way and fall on top of them. It was Blue.

"What the hell!" she hissed before roughly shoving him off.

He glared at her and got to his feet, dusting himself off before glancing back towards the hallway. The pain had faded from his head in that exact moment he made contact with Blue and the brunette was glad of it as he returned Rhydon to its Heavy Ball.

"Did you hear it too?" he asked with a sideways glance at her.

She quickly avoided eye contact. "Yeah," she muttered.

"Then you wouldn't mind coming with me to investigate," he growled, walking in the direction of a flashing red light.

Unfortunately he never made it in time as Lt. Surge appeared from the opposite side of the hall along with a few helpers, who blocked any entrance to the place. They glared at Blue as she stepped closer, bunching together to prevent further access, causing the girl to huff and stomp her foot on the ground. "Can you please let me pass?" she asked them.

Green stared at the helpers, awaiting their reactions. They just continued glaring before the shorter of the two scowled. "Of course not girl, go back to your room."

Of course, it was at this point that everyone else emerged from their rooms at once. Black, White, Crystal, Gold, Yellow, and many others peeked their heads out to catch a glimpse of the commotion. _Everyone except Sapphire,_ Green noted, noticing how the bandanna-wearing girl was strangely absent.

"What's going on?" White murmured, more to herself than the rest of the group.

"That's what everyone's wondering right now," Green replied with a sideways glance to the girl. "Apparently we're not allowed to go and check."

"Why not?" Yellow's room mate, Platina, if Green remembered correctly, asked. "It can not be so important as to just ignore."

Yellow narrowed her eyes and cupped her chin in her hand thoughtfully. "We're not getting anything done right now, so why don't we just go to bed and sleep on it? They'll probably explain everything to us tomorrow."

Everyone nodded in agreement, with the exceptions of Blue and Silver, who merely scowled while casting curious glances at the blocked off area. The sound of doors being shut were heard as everyone left, leaving only Green, Blue, and Silver in the hallway. It was only at that moment Sapphire stumbled in, eyes half closed.

"Uh?" she rubbed her eyes. "Seniors, what're ya'll doing here?"

"We should be asking you the same thing," Blue retorted. "Where were you when this happened?" she pointed to the blocked-off area.

Green nodded in approval as he realized what she was asking. _She thinks Sapphire is the culprit of whatever is going on over there. A valid hypothesis seeing as Sapphire was the only one of us not to have been there when this commotion came on._

The girl blinked at the older girl before staring at the people standing guard. "I was in my room and then suddenly found my myself in this hallway like I'd been sleepwalking or somethin'."

_Except it's the middle of the day._

Everyone frowned at this but said nothing as Lt. Surge walked over, brown eyes narrowed furiously. "You kids should be in your rooms, not wanderin' around like lost squirrels," he snapped.

"We would, but seeing as there was this huge and loud voice in our heads, do you blame us for trying to find out what happened?" Blue asked, blue eyes blinking innocently as she placed her arms behind her.

The man grunted. "Whatever, just go to your rooms and do whatever."

It seemed like Lt. Surge wasn't giving them much choice. They all nodded and ducked inside their separate rooms. However, upon entering his, Green noticed Red sitting on his bed, eyes clouded over. The spiky-haired brunette rose an eyebrow. "What, are you sulking over Blue's words now?"

The black-haired boy glanced up and scowled. "And why would _you_ care?"

"I don't."

"Good, then leave me alone."

The room was left silent for the rest of the day.

-break-

Green stood on the edge of the field with a bored expression on his face. Lt. Surge was still off somewhere and a lady named Erika was taking his place instead leaving the others to decide what to do.

Meanwhile, the instructor for the knights with spears, a girl by the name of Faye Claymore, was giving out orders in a wavering voice full of hesitance. Clutching her own weapon tightly, she finished explaining the basic rules of no killing before turning to the group of newbies.

"You three are a-all new, r-right?" Faye asked them.

By three, she meant the three students who stood off the side and away from the others.

"Correct!" Blue shouted, causing the blonde girl with green eyes to jump.

"O-Okay then," she turned to Green. "I assume you all know how to fight with a spear?"

Green nodded at her question while Blue beamed, but Silver merely shook his head to respond with 'no'. Blue thrust an arm around her "brother" and grinned at him. "Aw, poor Silv, looks like it's up to me to teach you!"

Silver scowled but made no effort to push the brunette's arm away. "I guess."

"That won't be necessary," Faye said, pointing the spear to Silver although Green noticed her hand shook with the action. "I'll teach him myself, you needn't waste your time when you can be practicing."

"But-"

"No," Faye shook her head. "It seems you already know eachother and that will be troublesome especially if you go soft on him. I-I mean, you know..."

Blue bit her lip and looked at her brother with her azure colored eyes. With a reassuring nod from Silver, she looked back to their head and sighed. "Fine, do as you wish."

Faye's shoulders slumped in relief. "R-Right. Okay then, you can train with Green, if t-that's your name?" she asked the brunette.

"Correct."

"Okay, t-then I'll just take Silver here. Oh, and remember, don't be too serious while f-fighting."

The girl led the redhead away and the boy in turn made no attempts to protest as she pointed her weapon to him. He held up his own and started sparring with her. Green scowled as he noticed the constant sloppy mistakes Silver made.

"Your opponent's not over there," a voice growled.

Suddenly Green found himself on the ground, and looked up in surprise to see Blue with a type of cold fire in her eyes. The brunette had moved on from being happy-go-lucky to serious so quickly that even Green hadn't been able to detect the change in mood in time. Standing back up, he jabbed his spear in her direction, only to have it dodged as Blue struck the end of her weapon his way. He evaded it and feinted. She ignored it and began shoving her spear at him again.

"You're good," she commented lightly. "But not good enough."

Blue slammed the flat end into his stomach, knocking him off-balance.

He grinned. "I thought we weren't doing serious fighting."

"Too bad," she replied with a smirk, blocking his throw.

"Where did you learn to fight?"

Blue dodged another lunge and hit her spear against his. "At the fighting arena in Sevii Islands."

"Sevii Islands, you live that far away?" Green narrowed his eyes. _Such a far distance away from Kanto to be._

"Yep!"

They continued to spar, spear against spear, neither side giving in. That is, until a boy passed by and stared at them before smirking. "Are you two dating or something?"

This apparently threw Blue off-guard as her movements became sloppy. The brunette gritted her teeth before flashing a glare in the direction of the guy. "Why would you think such a thing?"

"You two are in perfect sync like you know eachother's moves or somethin'."

"So? That doesn't mean anything," Blue feinted to Green's left quite clumsily.

The boy scowled but said nothing as he walked away, shoes tapping on the ground. Green didn't bother watching him leave but instead focused his attention on the girl in front of him who was quickly becoming distracted. As she continued to spar with him and as her movements rapidly became half-hearted, the boy began to wonder why she was possibly so flustered over the comment. But, before he got the chance to ask, Erika called out for them to be quiet.

Silence occupied the area as soon as she shouted out and a serious air hung over them. Green dropped his weapon at his side and paid attention to the kimono-wearing woman. It had quickly become a habit among the newbies to stop whatever they were doing and pay attention to whoever had told to them to shut up so as to understand what was going to happen next.

The substitute instructor brought out a white fan and waved it at her face for a moment before smiling warmly at them. "As you all know, Lt. Surge is absent from training today and I'm sure you all have guessed the reason why," a lot of heads bobbed up and down in the crowd, minus the newbie's who were still puzzled. Erika glanced at them with confusion before her eyes lit up.

"Ah, I forgot. To the newbies, this might be new to you, but we have seven important and priceless artifacts or idols within our school that we guard. Now, you're probably wondering why we're telling you this if they're oh-so-important things. Well, the answer is simple. It won't matter since everyone already knows this anyways.

"It's common knowledge at this school that we have idols within a specific room in the Lucario dorm that contain mysterious power and we also know that people will be tempted to steal them. That is why we have Sylvia," Erika gestured over the crowd of people with a point of her finger, who parted to let a purple cat-like Pokemon stroll in. "Now, before we start, I'd like to ask an honest question. Have you seen this idol, which looks exactly like Sylvia only its black and has an emerald on its head?"

Everyone shook their heads 'no', but as Green cast a glance over to Sapphire and Silver, he noticed the two were a bit hesitant to shook their heads.

Erika narrowed her eyes and turned to the purple Pokemon, an Espeon, if Green recalled. "Sylvia, is anyone here a possible suspect?"

The purple Pokemon scowled. _No. No one has anything to hide._

_That voice!_ Green's eyes widened in recognition. This was the speaker who had woken him up yesterday morning and who had also called the alarm. Awe filled Green as he stared at the cat-like creature. Sylvia merely twitched her tail while she scanned the crowd with bright purple eyes.

"Telepathy," Blue whispered beside him, eyes shining. "That's such a useful ability!"

Sylvia's eyes landed on the brunette and her ears slid back. The red jewel on her head flashed brightly.

"Aw, you're welcome," Blue laughed out loud, causing many to stare at her.

Silver prodded her with an elbow. "Who are you talking to?"

"Sylvia, of course!" she chuckled lightly, nodding to the Espeon.

Everyone who had heard her turned their heads to stare at the Pokemon, who gave a confirming dip of her head. _She was indeed talking to me._

Faye managed a weak laugh and looked over at Blue. "Sylvia must like you. S-She rarely speaks to anyone but the knights and her f-favorite students."

The girl blinked at this and then beamed. "Why, of course, no one can just turn away from my _awesomeness_ that easily!"

"Is that even a word?" Green muttered from beside her.

"Shut up."

"Pesky girl."

Blue puffed her cheeks up at this, balling her hands into fists, but she avoided saying anything but staring at Erika, who was concentrating on Sylvia with narrowed eyes. Flapping her fan, the substitute frowned before continuing on.

"Anyways, thank you for cooperating," she bowed. "Sylvia, you can return to your post. Meanwhile, everyone continue on with your work!" Sylvia dipped her head to the woman before stroding back into the academy building.

Green was more focused on Sapphire and Silver than the Espeon now, who seemed like the most likely candidates so far for having stolen the artifact. While Sapphire was no where to be found when the robbery happened, Silver was also cold and quiet, often reserved when it came to others.

_I should watch them more closely,_ he thought with a frown.

_Yellow's PoV_

Yellow held up her shield to help protect her against the shower of arrows raining down on her.

The sharp tips slammed into her shield and knocked her over, causing the girl to land on her back just as another wave of arrows were shot into the arrow. She squeaked, having no time to protect herself, and scrambled to get a steady grip on her shield.

However, she was saved by Crystal as the blue-haired girl knocked away the dangerous weapons with her own wooden shield. Twisting around, Crystal offered the blonde a reassuring smile and reached out her hand. Yellow accepted it, getting back to her feet. "Thanks."

Crystal smiled. "Of course."

A loud yell went up from the other side of the clearing they were all practicing in. It was Gold, who had had his shield knocked away by an unlucky shot of an arrow. As the archers, who were fighting with the shield-wielding people, pulled back their arrows, anyone could see Gold would be a sitting duck when they released the next shower of attacks.

Crystal scowled, holding her shield tightly, before rushing over to him. "He's about to have his death wish granted," she muttered, fire burning in her light blue eyes.

Yellow watched in shock as the girl shielded Gold from an onslaught of arrows just in time, protecting the boy from any harm. Crystal then whipped around and began to reprimand the boy, who merely smiled and beamed happily, uncaring that he had been just about to die.

For a second, Yellow thought she recognized the scene, of a girl scolding a boy, but quickly shook it off as more arrows hurtled towards her. Blocking them and rolling out of the way of the rest, she took a sharp intake of breath and wished Chuchu were with her now. She had been forced to leave the Pikachu in her Friend Ball, unable to use her due to some sort of rule within the academy. Still, Yellow reminded herself, she couldn't always just rely on the poor mouse to protect her every time.

Erika's voice rang out again strong and clear for them to end whatever they were doing, signaling the end of the session, and Yellow collapsed to the ground, panting hard. Training always wore her out, which was no surprise seeing as this was her first time doing such heavy work. Sure, she'd raced others before across long distances, but she'd quickly keep quit before going along any big distance.

Crystal and Gold walked over to her and placed their hands on their legs, bending over slightly. Yellow could tell that they also weren't fans of doing such work.

"Man, why...do I have to get stuck with this...stupid weapon," Gold growled, glaring at his shield.

Crystal hit him lightly on the head with her own shield. "Shut up, you're not the only one stuck with it, no offense, Yellow."

"None taken," she replied with a slight smile.

Gold muttered something unintelligible but quickly shut up when Crystal once again raised her weapon. He placed his hands over his head and closed his eyes before frowning. He opened his eyes again and then looked away.

Yellow cast her gaze over to the archers, who were also slumped on the ground, their bows and arrows tossed carelessly beside them. Among them, were Sapphire, Ruby, White and Black, each looking as worn out as the rest, minus Sapphire, who seemed almost waiting to burst with untamed energy.

Erika clapped her hands together and everyone's heads turned to her. "Okay, now that practicing is over with, we can move onto something I like to call...Pairing Matches," she chuckled. "Again, to anyone new, this should soon become common knowledge. Fellow knights are paired up with others in group of two, each with weapons, and face off against others to build cooperation between each other. The match is determined when you have your opponent cornered. Sounds simple, right?"

A few nods from the crowd. "Good," Erika smiled. "Now moving on, I will begin to read pairings. Wally and Crystal, Gold and Mary, Lena and Faye, Dia and..."

Yellow started to drown out Erika's words, finding herself more interested in the concept of Pairing Matches. Scrambling to her feet, along with Crystal and Gold, who joined their respective partners, she clutched her shield tightly. _What if I fail at this...I'm not very good at fighting._

A tap on the shoulder and Yellow looked up, startled by the sudden touch. It was Red, who was grinning at her with his black bangs hanging over his eyes. "Yo, partner!"

"P-Partner?"

He blinked at this. "Didn't you hear, we're partners for this whole pairing thingy."

"Ah, right," Yellow laughed even though she hadn't really heard her name called. Smiling sheepishly, she ignored a sly glance from Blue that was tossed at her. "So what's you weapon?"

"A sword," Red held up his item, beaming. "Yours?"

"Shield," she showed the weapon to the boy, who seemed amused with her actions.

"Figures," he said. "That a girl like you would get a shield."

"What does that mean?" green eyes stared at his namesake ones.

"Exactly that. You seem like the type to have a shield as your weapon."

"T-Thanks, I guess..."

Red grinned and opened his mouth to say something, when he was silenced by the sound of Erika clapping. They turned their attention to the substitute and waited quietly for her next words.

The lady did a slight bow to the academy students. "Now that everyone has found their partners, I would like to begin. We shall start with Mary and Gold versus Ruby and Sapphire. If your names were called please come up to the field and take the left or right side to start."

The four students obliged, Sapphire and Ruby taking the left side of the grassy field while Mary and Gold took the other. Red scowled.

"It'll take a miracle for Ruby and Sapphire to win this match."

Yellow glanced up at him in confusion, until she realized he was talking about their weapons. While the two both held bows, their opponents, Mary and Gold, each held a sword and a shield which could easily deflect any long-range attacks. Yellow frowned.

"Let's hope that they both do their best."

Erika held her hands up. "We shall start in three...," Gold and Mary took determined steps forward, "two...," Ruby and Sapphire tensed.

"GO!"

Two arrows flew into the air, startling everyone with the shocking speed they were thrown at. Ruby reloaded his bow and shot once again at his opponents while Sapphire dived closer in, her arrow tips pointed towards Mary, who was busy knocking away Ruby's attacks. Gold just stood by, staring at Sapphire but unable to do much with his shield in hand.

Blue came up beside Yellow, smiling. "Who do you think will win?" she asked the blonde.

"I-I don't know, they're both good."

"Psh, sure, but Mary's team is at a disadvantage. While they may have an offensive weapon, Mary's sword, it won't be able to help against long-range attacks. Gold's shield won't have much of an effect, all he can do is blocking. Ruby and Sapphire, however, have the use of long-range weapons and can probably use them to their advantage effectively without much risk of danger," Blue slid a hand under her brown hair and let out a huff after finishing her little speech.

"I'm impressed," Green said from behind them, "That you can tell so much based on weapons alone."

The brunette spun around to meet the spiky-haired boy with her icy azure blue eyes. "So, are you saying that you think I'm stupid or something?"

"I never said that," he replied evenly. "It's just interesting how an irritating person like you could possibly know so much."

Yellow held back a chuckle at this, seeing the frustrated look on Blue's face, and she turned back to the battle at hand. Many arrows were now plunged into Gold's shield, having pierced the rough wooden surface while his partner seemed a bit dazed, arrows littering the area around her feet.

Sapphire was nocking another arrow while her partner was no where in sight. Glancing around, Yellow noticed the boy was back in the crowd of people, looking a bit crestfallen. She turned to Red. "Why isn't Ruby fighting?"

The black-haired boy scowled. "He got out by Mary."

"How?"

"He got cornered by a sword to the throat."

"Ah."

Gold and Mary were advancing now on Sapphire, who seemed unfazed as she kept shooting arrows at an impossible speed. It was a wonder her opponents hadn't gotten out yet. Mary cupped her hands over her mouth.

"Give up!" she called.

Gold joined in. "There's no way a barbarian could possibly beat us."

Sapphire gritted her teeth at the name _barbarian_, but continued to shoot arrows. It wasn't two seconds later that Mary got shot in the leg. The girl winced at the pain in her leg and was escorted by two people to what Yellow presumed was the healing area.

That left Gold.

Yellow felt a bit sorry for the boy, seeing as he only had a shield to defend himself. The spiky-haired boy ducked and blocked the many arrows he recieved while Sapphire advanced, unable to do anything much to harm Sapphire. The brown-haired girl grabbed another arrow and, instead of shooting it, knocked away Gold's shield and pointed at his throat.

"Game!" Erika shouted.

Cheers and roars of "Sapphire" went up among the crowd making Yellow feel like she was about to go deaf._ Ow, just how loud can a crowd shout?_

Once everyone had gone silent, Erika continued to list the next match. "Crystal and Wally versus Sapphire and Ruby!"

Both teams stepped into the field, Ruby and Sapphire once again taking the left side while Crystal and a green-haired boy Yellow presumed was Wally took the other. While Ruby and Sapphire stood tall, Wally was coughing a bit while Crystal held her shield with an unsure look on her face.

"What team will win this time?" Yellow heard Green ask Blue.

The girl blinked. "Ruby and Sapphire. Wally doesn't seem like much of an opponent, while Crystal, that's her name right, won't be able to do anything with a shield."

Red gave a sideways glance to the girl, eyes slightly wide at her amount of fighting knowledge. "How do you know so much?" he asked.

Blue shrugged. "It's...natural for me to know?" She sounded hesitant.

_Something like that just can't be common knowledge,_ Yellow thought with a frown, but turned her attention back to the teams who were about to fight. Erika was in the process of counting down.

"One!"

Crystal took a step forward to engage her targets...only to fall in the process. The clumsy action was created by a large rock that had suddenly appeared from nowhere. Crystal tumbled forward and her face hit the ground. Wally stepped up to help her, only to have an arrow in the hands of Ruby to his throat. Sapphire shoved her own arrow to Crystal's.

"Game!" Erika called out again.

"Tch, not much of a battle," the boy known as Gold muttered from behind Yellow. "I thought for sure SSG would've been able to deal some major damage to Sissy Boy and Barbarian."

"That was what? Twenty seconds?" Blue said.

"Eighteen," Green corrected from behind her.

"Whatever."

Their substitute called for Green and Blue to go next. The two brunettes took the places of Crystal and Wally and held their spears defiantly.

"Battle start!"

To make it short, it was an easy victory for Green and Blue. Although Yellow hadn't been paying much attention (her mind had started wandering), from the constant flashes of silver and brown, it was quite obvious that Ruby and Sapphire weren't able to handle these new opponents.

Erika called for them to stop. Ruby and Sapphire took their places among the crowd, earning a few sympathetic looks from fellow academy students. Still, they looked defiant and without much care for their loss.

"Silver and Platina shall take on our new champions!"

Yellow's room-mate and the red-headed boy from before walked to the left side of the field, each looking confidently at Blue and Green. Platina had her hand resting on her sword's hilt, not bothering to take it out of it's sheathe. Silver held his spear out in front of him, tensing as his namesake eyes met Blue's. He looked worried but the girl merely gaved him a nod. Green frowned.

Yellow held back a yawn, her green eyes watching as Erika began to count down yet again.

_Be ready...it's just like...no...wait..._

The blonde girl's eyes widened in surprise. _W-What the Mew? Where did those voices come from?_ She swung her head from side to side, looking at everyone, but they all seemed focused on Green's and Blue's battle, tensing at every blow. It surely couldn't be Sylvia's voice, the tone of it was more faded and mysterious, holding just a hint of a high-pitch.

Yellow frowned, deciding to ignore it, and turned her attention back to the battle at hand.

Apparently Platina had already gotten out. The blue-haired girl stood at the sidelines, her midnight blue eyes glaring fiercely at Blue, who Yellow assumed had gotten her room-mate out. Silver was holding his own fairly well against Blue and Green, dodging constant jabs and feints from the other team, barely sweating.

"Silver must be a skilled expert on fighting," Red commented from beside her. "Even if he _is_ outmatched, there might just be a chance he could make it."

"Yeah..."

Silver blocked a blow from his sis and pointed it to her forehead. "Sorry sis," he said after dodging a hit from Green. "You're out."

Blue smiled, seeming unbothered by it, and skipped away with her spear still in hand. She joined Platina and waved to her partner. "You can do it Silv!"

The boys looked mildly irritated at her inturruption, but continued their sparring. Stab, thrust, feint. Stab, thrust, feint. They almost seemed matched in skills as they fought, sweat dripping down their faces as they blocked and jabbed.

"It's like they're twins or something," Red said, sweatdropping.

"Agreed," Yellow murmured.

Five minutes later, not one opponent fell to the other. Silver still held his weapon firmly, while Green expertly switched his from hand to hand. Yellow was surprised they were even still standing.

"Come on Silv! Show that brown-haired Slowbro what you got!" Blue shouted from the sidelines.

At the cheer, Silver seemed to gain strength, and his swings became full of power. Green stumbled back from the unexpected transformation, his green eyes narrowed. The boy raised his spear and, in a quick moment of thinking, swung it down to Silver's neck.

"Game!" the crowd of academy students cried, having been entranced by the battle.

"Nice one," Silver said with a slight smile.

Green narrowed his eyes. "You did pretty well."

Erika slid her fan into a pocket in her kimono. "It seems time is almost up for today," she mumured with a frown before raising her voice. "Our last match shall be Blue and Green versus Red and Yellow!"

Yellow wanted to run away at that moment as she and Red were led to the left, her heart beating rapidly. Still, it wouldn't be right just to run away from battle. Trying to look calm and determined, she held her shield out in front of her, erasing any look of anxiety from her face. Red seemed more laidback compared to her, showing off a lop-sided grin as his sword dangled from his hand. "You ready?" he asked the blonde girl.

She swallowed. "I think so."

"Begin!"

Blue abruptly started aiming for Yellow while Green distracted Red from helping. The two boys fought on even grounds, and from the corner of her eyes, the blonde noticed the crowd's attention drawn to them. _But I have other things to worry about._

She narrowly dodged a spear to the face, placing her shield out in front of her to stop any attacks, but her opponent seemed not to care. Blue thrust and jabbed in Yellow's direction, only to find her efforts avoided by Yellow's shield, and with each and every blow, the blonde was starting to become more confident. _I can do this,_ she thought, blocking another jab.

It was only a second later Yellow had a spear to her forehead.

"Out," Blue said with a mischievious smile.

She dipped her head and glanced over at Red. He flashed crimson eyes at her before dodging a blow from Green. "Sorry I couldn't protect you."

Her eyes widened at this and she pulled at her straw hat. "Sorry I couldn't have been a better partner."

Yellow walked over to the sidelines and took a place next to Platina and Crystal, flashing them a half-hearted smile when they looked in her direction. She turned her attention back to the battle between her partner and his two opponents.

Red, although outnumbered, seemed to be at ease as he fought with both of them, dipping out of harm's way before blocking any of their attacks with his sword. Blue seemed frustrated at this, her moves becoming sloppier, while Green kept his cool, calm attitude.

"Why don't you just let us win, sweetie?" Blue asked in a mocking yet sly way to Red.

Green shot his partner an exasperated look. "Don't bother talking, Blue. Just fight."

Despite still in combat, the brunette girl stuck her tongue out at him. "Who says I have to do anything you say?"

"Will you _shut _up!"

"Tsk, tsk, fine," and they lapsed into silence.

Red continued to battle against Green and Blue, remaining quiet as he fought. He almost seemed invincible as he blocked and feinted, crimson eyes locked on both of them as he swung back and forth, evading and advancing.

The black spiky-haired boy suddenly lunged and knocked Green to the ground, the tip of his sword pointed to his throat. Green dusted himself off and dipped his head to Red before going to the sidelines, seeming unconcerned when everyone's gaze lingered on him.

Now it was Red versus Blue.

Yellow tensed as Blue thrust her spear towards Red, only to have it hit empty air. Going back and forth, it almost seemed to never end between the two. Every student leaned forward as Red advanced on Blue, forcing the brunette girl back. She huffed and tried a feint, only to have a sword pointed to her face.

Red grinned. "You're out."

She stood, perplexed for a moment, before shrugging. "Guess I am."

It was at that moment the bell rang and everyone filtered out to go to their individual classes. Yellow gave one last glance at Red before following them.

-break-

Upon arriving in Shauntal's class, she was met with a crowd of excited academy students. They were talking among themselves, some holding Pokemon while others just held a Poke Ball in their hands. Everyone had seemed to forget about the earlier incident and instead seemed to have moved onto something new.

Yellow, puzzled, wandered over to where Red, Blue, and Green stood. "What's going on?" she asked.

Blue spoke with a grin. "Remember the whole capturing contest thingy?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well apparently this's some sort of test that leads on to further tests," she paused for a moment. "Not much more is known. But that doesn't matter, I can't wait to go and grab a Pokemon!"

"Why?" Red inquired.

She grinned. "Because with that Pokemon I'm one step closer to taking over the world!"

Everyone in hearing distance sweatdropped at this. Red scratched at his cheek, puzzled by her answer, but shrugged and gave up on getting a sane response from the girl. Yellow sighed. _I wonder what purpose she has in joining this school...but moving on, how am I going to catch anything?_ she thought with a frown. _I can't catch anything. Sure I _technically_ caught Chuchu but I didn't do it alone...maybe I can ask Crystal, she seems nice enough._ Yellow made a mental note to find the girl after Shauntal finished with them.

-break-

"So, what brings you here?" Crystal asked the blonde girl after she had knocked on the girl's room door.

"Um, I was wondering if you could possibly teach me how to capture Pokemon? There's an event coming up soon and I kind of need to learn how to capture things..."

The blue-haired girl blinked. "Sure, but would you mind if it's later? I have to take care of something right now, but you can meet me in the school gardens this evening and we can talk."

Yellow was surprised the girl had accepted her request so easily. "Thanks, but...um, where are the gardens?"

Crystal adjusted her yellow cap before ducking into her room only to return with a map. She took out a pen and began to scribble random lines on it before handing it to Yellow. "Here. Follow these directions and that should get you where you need to go."

"Thank you."_ If I can only read this..._

"I have to get back to work, excuse me," Crystal went back into her room and shut the door, leaving Yellow alone in the hallway.

The blonde girl smiled at her victory, before heading back to her room to study her map.

-break-

An hour later, Yellow arrived in the proposed place.

Crystal was there, along with four others. Silver, Gold, White, and Black had apparently joined the pigtailed girl to eat. A basket of apples and peaches lie in the middle of their circle, followed by a few journals and feather pens. But that wasn't what amazed Yellow.

Tons of Pokemon wandered around in the school's garden, coming in all shapes and sizes. There were Nidoran (of both genders), Rattata, Ditto, and lots of other Pokemon that weren't normally native to Kanto. The blonde girl spotted like creatures with black skin and golden rings, green things with flowers for hands, dark gray and white birds, and golden spiders with deep blue eyes.

"Yo!" Gold called out to her, balancing a green Apricorn ball on what seemed like a very thin stick. "Straw hat girl!"

"Gold!" Crys scowled.

"What?"

"Don't be rude," she turned to Yellow. "So you want to learn about catching Pokemon, right?"

"Yep."

"Then I'll teach you," the blue-haired girl snatched a brown journal and jumped to her feet. "Let's see...," she flipped through the first few pages. "Ah, here it is! The mechanics to capturing!"

"Mechanics...?" Yellow didn't like the sound of that.

"Yep," she took out a Apricorn Ball known only as the Heavy Ball. "See this? This is a Heavy Ball, used for capturing big Pokemon. Now, to capture a Pokemon, you have to weaken it, right?" Yellow nodded. "So watch me."

Crystal took out a Love Ball and tossed it to the ground. A Xatu emerged from it, head twisting back and forth as it focused black eyes on its trainer. "Tu?" it cawed questioningly, before turning to Gold. "Tu! Tu! Xatu!"

Yellow narrowed her eyes as she translated. _Wha? Hey, hey, you!_

The spiky-haired boy stared at it strangely. "Why the Lugia is it doing that?"

"Good question. Tupeon is never happy to see anyone besides me..."

"Tuuuu," Tupeon whined, pecking Crystal's leg before twisting its head and pointing to Gold. "Tu!"

_Cryssss, him!_

"He recognizes Gold apparently," Yellow murmured to the girl beside him. Everyone turned to look at her in awe.

Crystal blinked at the blonde, apparently wanting to question her, but turned back to the bird. Tupeon sighed and pointed to Gold again with its wing, whining. The bluenette sighed. "I don't know where you possibly could have met _him_," she jabbed a thumb to Gold, "but don't worry about it."

"Tuuuuu, Xatu, Tu, Tu!"

_But you don't understand, he's..._

Yellow repeated the words to Crystal who nodded before patting her Pokemon on the head. She turned to Gold. "Do you recognize him?" she asked.

He frowned. "No, definitely not...are you sure you mistook me for someone else?" he asked the bird.

Tupeon spread his wings and growled, cawing louder in annoyance, but no longer speaking. The Pokemon hopped up and down but, seeing the puzzled looks on his trainer's face, gave up and sighed.

"Anyways...," Crystal turned to look and then pointed at a Nidoking that happened to wander by. "Ah, a perfect target! Tupeon, use Psybeam on that Pokemon!"

The Xatu complied, sending a rainbow-colored beam of energy to the Nidoking. It hit and seconds later everyone watched in amazement as the Pokemon collapsed onto its knees, panting from the unexpected attack. Swinging its head around, it turned to glare at Crystal.

"Good, now," she turned to Yellow. "Do you think you can catch it?"

"Maybe?"

"Great!" the blue-haired girl handed her the Heavy Ball. "Just toss it at the Pokemon, and don't forget to aim for the vital spot!"

Yellow nodded and tossed it into the air towards the weakened Nidoking. The Pokeball landed three feet away from her and nowhere near the target. Everyone but Yellow sweatdropped at this, while the Nidoking merely smirked at her failed attempt.

"See, I can't catch Pokemon," Yellow said miserably.

Crystal scowled, and picked up another Heavy Ball from the ground. "Try this," she held it in front of her head, dropped it, and then kicked out her leg to hit the Apricorn Ball. It flew with startling accuracy over to the Nidoking, clicked, and opened up to absorb the pink Pokemon inside. Seconds later, it was caught.

"Wow," Gold muttered with an apple in his mouth. "That was pretty good for a girl."

Crystal gave him a dangerous glare. "What are you implying?

He hastily looked away. "Nothing."

Staring at him with disbelief, Crystal scowled but said nothing as she turned back to Yellow. "See, the basics of capturing all begin with thrust and accuracy."

"Thrust?"

"You have to aim at certain angles to hit your target. Not to mention you have to take into consideration the type of Apricorn Ball used. Then there's critical-capture rate and the ratio of health too. Oh, and also status can help with the weakening of targets." _What in the world of Kanto is she talking about?_

Crystal continued her little speech while Yellow stared hopelessly at her, unable to comprehend anything the pigtailed girl was saying. But, looking around, she could tell everyone also paying attention to her was just as confused (with the exception of Silver, who seemed uninterested).

"Uh, Crys, I don't think Straw hat girl is listening," Gold commented from the sidelines as he bit into his apple.

The girl abruptly stopped talking and, seeing the blank face on Yellow, sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself aren't I?"

"You certainly are," Gold agreed cheekily.

"Shut up," Crystal growled to him.

He shrugged and took another bite before smirking. "Stop being so serious, Super Serious Gal."

Moments later, Gold had taken yet _another_ Apricorn Ball to the face. The boy rubbed his cheek and narrowed his golden eyes. He muttered something unintelligible under his breath about girls and Apricorns.

"Do you _want_ to _die_ today, Gold?" Crystal said through gritted teeth, holding a Lure Ball in her fingers.

He backed away quickly and looked away, shutting up. _Crystal works wonders on him..._Yellow thought with a smile.

"I'm sorry about him," Crystal turned to the blonde. "Shall we continue?"

"I-I'm fine!" she waved her hands. _I couldn't understand half of what you said anyways._

"Oh, well, okay. Did you at least learn anything about capturing?"

"Plenty," she replied.

"Good!" the blue-haired girl said in a sing-song voice as she sat back down. "Oh, hey, you should join us. The food's great!"

"Sure!" _It does look good..._

Yellow took a seat beside the blue-haired girl and grabbed one of the two remaining apples in the basket. Biting into it, she focused onto what was happening around her. Black and White, having grown bored with their guest, began to talk with each other about agencies they could have (whatever that was). Gold began to engage Crystal in a conversation about Pokemon type advantages.

Silver abruptly stood up. "I have to leave."

"To where, the sky?" Gold grinned.

"No, to meet sis," he replied nonchalantly before walking off.

They all watched as he walked off, hands in pockets. As he disappeared, White got up and stretched.

"Ah, those two seem so close," she twisted around before taking her seat again. "I wonder why."

Black began to sketch something with his feather pen on one of the journals. "Maybe they were kidnapped when they were younger and forced to bond with eachother while they trained under an evil mastermind," he joked.** (A/N: ah, the references!)**

"Of course it's not like that," White rolled her eyes.

"Well, that Silver is just too cold and frosty. It's a wonder he even has emotions around Blue, sister or not."

"Gold!" Crystal exclaimed.

He turned his head to look at her. "What?"

"Don't be rude!"

"He's not even around to here, besides, it's the truth," he glanced over to Yellow. "What's your opinion on him?"

"Me?" Yellow placed a finger on her chin. "I'd have to say he's a bit scary, but not as bad as Green," she shuddered, "that guy scares me..."

"I wonder why...," Crys murmured before jumping back in surprise. "Look at that, it's almost night-time!"

_She's right,_ Yellow thought in shock as she noticed the night sky had already come up. _I wonder when that happened..._

"We better hurry back," Black said as he finished his apple, seeming almost unconcerned as he tossed the core behind him.

Everyone nodded their heads and they all started off to the academy dorms.

-break-

Upon reaching the entrance, the five met up with Silver and Blue, who apparently were discussing something about cats.

"I think they'd be-oh hey! Hello you guys!" Blue skipped over to meet them, grinning. "We were just talking about our favorite color of cats, what's yours?"

"Purple," Gold said with a grin.

"Purple isn't a color of cats," Crystal scowled.

"Unless you count Purrloins," White pointed out.

"Not helping," Crystal muttered.

Blue rolled her eyes at them before turning to the Lucario dorm entrance. Silver followed her actions, about to open the door, when they all were hit by a powerful force inside their heads. Everyone crumpled to the ground, unable to take the mental energy, leaving Yellow as the only one standing. She seemed to be the only one unaffected by the force that was making everyone else hurt.

_HELP ME! HELP!_

Even though they were in pain, everyone recognized the voice. "Sylvia!" Blue cried out as she forced herself to stand.

Suddenly, the mysterious force vanished and they all leaped to their feet. As if in agreement, they nodded at each other and ran inside, hoping to catch whoever was stealing the artifacts...

**-break-**

**And so enters Sylvia, an OC i quite like. She'll become an important charrie later in the plot...**

**Also, keep in mind there are slight hints as to who the culprit is. As vague as they might be, they're in there. :D**

**Oh, and I have a Pokespe one-shot collection series I'm starting too! You guys should check it out on my profile~**

**-Fluttersong**


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